Ellen Barkin
Ellen Barkin is a veteran actress with a career spanning over four decades. She became acquainted with Johnny Depp around 1990 and later appeared with him in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998). The two had a brief sexual relationship in 1994, predating Depp's relationship with Amber Heard by roughly two decades. She was called by Heard's legal team as a third-party witness to Depp's behavior before the marriage.
Testimony Impact
Barkin was called by Heard's counsel as a pre-marriage pattern-of-behavior witness to establish that Depp's alleged jealousy, control, and substance abuse were not isolated to his relationship with Heard. She testified that Depp was drunk most of the time during their relationship and regularly used cocaine, marijuana, and hallucinogens. She described a specific act of physical volatility during Fear and Loathing filming: Depp throwing a wine bottle across their Las Vegas hotel room in her direction. Barkin characterized Depp as jealous and controlling, citing possessive questioning and a telling incident involving a scratch on her back. The testimony was confined to direct examination and drew on events nearly three decades before trial.
Notable Quotes From The Record
“He was drunk all the - most - a lot of the time.”
Establishes pervasive alcohol use as a constant, not an occasional, feature of Depp's behavior during Barkin's time with him.
“Mr. Depp threw a wine bottle across the room, the hotel room, on one instance in Las Vegas while we were shooting Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”
The sole specific act of physical volatility Barkin describes — offered to show a pattern of impulsive, potentially threatening behavior predating Heard's allegations.
“He's just a jealous man, controlling, "Where are you going? Who are you going with? What did you do last night?" I had a scratch on my back once that got him very, very angry because he insisted it came from me having sex with a person who wasn't him.”
Barkin's most direct characterization of Depp's controlling jealousy, including a specific incident that illustrates the possessive behavior Heard's team sought to establish as a pattern.
Key Moments
Barkin establishes the arc of her relationship with Depp — friendship beginning around 1990, co-starring in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and the shift to a brief sexual relationship in 1994 — framing her as a witness with sustained close-range observation of his behavior.
Day 19 · Direct of Ellen Barkin
Barkin testifies that Depp was drunk 'most — a lot of the time' throughout their relationship and regularly used cocaine, marijuana, and hallucinogens, anchoring Heard's team's narrative that pervasive substance abuse predated the marriage.
Day 19 · Direct of Ellen Barkin
Barkin describes the wine bottle incident: during Fear and Loathing filming in Las Vegas, Depp threw a wine bottle across the hotel room in her direction — the sole specific act of physical volatility she witnessed, offered to establish an early pattern of impulsive, threatening behavior.
Day 19 · Direct of Ellen Barkin
Barkin recounts Depp's jealous and controlling behavior in granular terms — possessive questioning about her whereabouts and companions — and describes his reaction to a scratch on her back as illustrative of his possessiveness toward her.
Day 19 · Direct of Ellen Barkin
Barkin describes the end of the relationship: Depp broke it off when she tried to leave Las Vegas, a detail Heard's team used to reinforce the controlling-behavior pattern without requiring a long-term relationship as context.
Day 19 · Direct of Ellen Barkin