Ellen Barkin — Direct
122 linesTHE COURT: All right.
MS. BREDEHOFT: We have another.
THE COURT: How much time?
MS. BREDEHOFT: We have an I I-minute
THE COURT: That's fine. What's your next witness?
MS. BREDEHOFT: Ellen Barkin, B-A-R-K-I-N.
THE COURT: Thank you.
MS. BREDEHOFT: ELLEN BARKIN, being first duly sworn, was examined and testified as follows:
MS. KAPLAN: Good morning, Ms. Barkin.
ELLEN BARKIN: Good morning.
MS. KAPLAN: I think the first thing that would be very short but very simple and clean for the record, is if you could just describe kind of your career background. I know it's been lengthy, but just give a kind of brief summary of kind of when you started working and what you've done during your career.
ELLEN BARKIN: I started acting professionally about 26 or '7, and I did theater, television, movies, lots of them. That's what I did for 40 years.
MS. KAPLAN: And in the course of your career acting in theater, television, movies, et cetera, did you come to meet a person by the name of Johnny Depp?
ELLEN BARKIN: Yes.
MS. KAPLAN: Can you specify in time, Ms. Barkin, when you met him?
ELLEN BARKIN: I would say 1990.
MS. KAPLAN: And upon or after meeting him, did there come a time when you became friends?
ELLEN BARKIN: Yes.
MS. KAPLAN: And can you describe how that happened?
ELLEN BARKIN: We just developed a friendship over time that lasted - I guess if we met in the '90s, maybe ten years or a little less.
MS. KAPLAN: And fair to say that Mr. Depp, at the Is time, was also an actor, a professional actor?
ELLEN BARKIN: Yes.
MS. KAPLAN: Were you -- did you act in any film, stage, or TV productions with Mr. Depp?
ELLEN BARKIN: Yes. I was in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
MS. KAPLAN: How often would you see Mr. Depp?
ELLEN BARKIN: When I lived in New York, usually whenever I go to LA. If I were in LA, I'd see him once a week, maybe more. I mean, the friendship went up and down, living on different coasts.
MS. KAPLAN: And did there come a time when your friendship with Mr. Depp became more than that, became romantic in nature?
ELLEN BARKIN: Yes.
MS. KAPLAN: And at what point in time did your relationship with Mr. Depp take a romantic tum?
ELLEN BARKIN: After I had moved to Hollywood and he, you know, switched the buttons.
MS. KAPLAN: Do you recall what year you moved to Hollywood?
ELLEN BARKIN: Yes. 1994.
MS. KAPLAN: When you say "switched the buttons," can you tell me what you meant by that?
ELLEN BARKIN: The friendship went from a purely platonic friendship to a romantic one.
MS. KAPLAN: At that point in 1994 when the relationship turned romantic, to your knowledge --
ELLEN BARKIN: Can we change that to "sexual"?
MS. KAPLAN: To sexual.
ELLEN BARKIN: Thank you.
MS. KAPLAN: For how long did your relationship with Mr. Depp remain sexual?
ELLEN BARKIN: Several months. Anywhere between three and five, six.
MS. KAPLAN: And during that period, how often would you see Mr. Depp, that period when it was sexual?
ELLEN BARKIN: I'd say I'd see him three or four times a week.
MS. KAPLAN: And, again, I'm not looking to pry into private details, but can you tell me, like, where you would see him? Just give me some sense of that.
ELLEN BARKIN: Yeah. He would come to my house or I would go to his house.
MS. KAPLAN: And both houses in LA?
ELLEN BARKIN: Yes. About a ten-minute drive apart from each other.
MS. KAPLAN: And either when you were at his house where you didn't stay the night or you were at his house where you did stay the night, were there other people in the house who saw you there? Who would those people be?
ELLEN BARKIN: He had an assistant. His sister. That's all I can remember now.
MS. KAPLAN: Do you recall the name of the assistant?
ELLEN BARKIN: I don't know his name. He was referred to as "Pig."
MS. KAPLAN: He was referred to by whom as Pig?
ELLEN BARKIN: Johnny Depp.
MS. KAPLAN: At any point that you were either initially friends and then sexual with Mr. Depp, did you become aware that he drank to excess?
ELLEN BARKIN: I was always aware.
MS. KAPLAN: And can you explain how you were aware of that?
ELLEN BARKIN: He was drunk all the - most - a lot of the time.
MS. KAPLAN: And that would apply both to when you were initially friends and then later when it became sexual?
ELLEN BARKIN: Yeah.
MS. KAPLAN: And what was he drunk -- what was your understanding what he had drunk to become drunk?
ELLEN BARKIN: He was a red wine drinker.
MS. KAPLAN: Okay. In addition to alcohol were you I aware at that time that Mr. Depp was taking any 120 prescription medication?
ELLEN BARKIN: No.
MS. KAPLAN: Okay. Same question, Mr. Barkin, for illegal substances.
ELLEN BARKIN: Yes.
MS. KAPLAN: Same question. And what illegal substances?
ELLEN BARKIN: Hallucinogenics, cocaine, marijuana.
MS. KAPLAN: Hallucinogenics, can you say specifically what those were?
ELLEN BARKIN: I don't really know.
MS. KAPLAN: Okay.
ELLEN BARKIN: He called and told me he was tripping.
MS. KAPLAN: With respect to any of that, hallucinogenics, cocaine, or marijuana, did he do any of that in your presence?
ELLEN BARKIN: Yes.
MS. KAPLAN: More than once?
ELLEN BARKIN: All the time.
MS. KAPLAN: When you say "all the time," how many times, again in the period you were both first friends and then sexual with Mr. Depp, do you think you saw him?
ELLEN BARKIN: I couldn't even tell you. I mean, I just know he was always drinking and, of course, smoking a joint.
MS. KAPLAN: But would it be fair to say more than at least dozens of times?
ELLEN BARKIN: Yeah. Over the full course? Oh, yeah.
MS. KAPLAN: Now, did you ever observe, Ms. Barkin, Mr. Depp's behavior change when he drank more or used more drugs?
ELLEN BARKIN: I did not.
MS. KAPLAN: So he was kind of the same all the time, fair to say?
ELLEN BARKIN: He was not the same. He was high.
MS. KAPLAN: Did there come a time, Ms. Barkin, when Mr. Depp acted in a way that was out of control with you?
ELLEN BARKIN: Yes. 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.
MS. KAPLAN: Were you -- was something about to happen?
ELLEN BARKIN: Fight was going on.
MS. KAPLAN: Between you and Mr. Depp?
ELLEN BARKIN: No.
MS. KAPLAN: Who was the fight between?
ELLEN BARKIN: Between Johnny Depp and his friends in the room, the assistant. Honestly, I don't remember.
MS. KAPLAN: And the bottle that -- do you remember, sitting here today, if the bottle full of wine or empty?
ELLEN BARKIN: I don't.
MS. KAPLAN: Sitting here today, Ms. Barkin, do you remember whether the bottle hit you?
ELLEN BARKIN: No, it did not.
MS. KAPLAN: Did the bottle hit anyone else?
ELLEN BARKIN: No, it did not.
MS. KAPLAN: Approximately how far away from you was Mr. Depp when he threw the bottle?
ELLEN BARKIN: Across the room, so maybe by that break in the table or a little further down. It was a toss.
MS. KAPLAN: And sitting here today, if the bottle had hit you, would it have injured you?
MS. KAPLAN: Was it your understanding that he was I, throwing the bottle at you?
ELLEN BARKIN: I don't know why he threw the bottle.
MS. KAPLAN: And when he threw it, was it in your direction?
ELLEN BARKIN: Yes.
MS. KAPLAN: Were there other people standing around you?
ELLEN BARKIN: Yes.
MS. KAPLAN: So he threw it in your direction at a ! 10 group of people?
ELLEN BARKIN: Yes.
MS. KAPLAN: Whose hotel room was it?
ELLEN BARKIN: His, Johnny Depp's.
MS. KAPLAN: Who broke off the relationship?
ELLEN BARKIN: He did.
MS. KAPLAN: How did it come about that Mr. Depp I broke off your relationship?
ELLEN BARKIN: I went to go home. There was a big good-bye, crying, a lot of jealous and, you know, "Don't do this. Don't do that," and I never heard from him again after that.
MS. KAPLAN: And did Mr. Depp not want you to go -- 1 I back to Los Angeles at the time?
ELLEN BARKIN: Yes, he didn't want me to go. I was only supposed to be there for two days. I stayed for longer. i 5
MS. KAPLAN: And you just referenced -- you just used the word "jealous." How did that come up? What did he say that indicated to you that he was jealous?
ELLEN BARKIN: 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.
MS. KAPLAN: During the time that you were in a sexual relationship with Mr. Depp, was it common for him to say things to you about being controlling, to use your words, or being jealous of you?
ELLEN BARKIN: Yeah, very common.
MS. KAPLAN: And when, in these instances when Mr. Depp became jealous or controlling, did he also become angry?
ELLEN BARKIN: Yeah. And demanding.