Amber Heard received death threats after she accused Johnny Depp of domestic abuse.
The actor said that she had to change her phone number every week and that she rarely left her apartment in the months following the accusations.
In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Heard said that women speaking out about domestic violence need to be given more support – both from institutions in the US and from individuals.
“I write this as a woman who had to change my phone number weekly because I was getting death threats,” she wrote.
“For months, I rarely left my apartment, and when I did, I was pursued by camera drones and photographers on foot, on motorcycles and in cars.
“Tabloid outlets that posted pictures of me spun them in a negative light. I felt as though I was on trial in the court of public opinion — and my life and livelihood depended on myriad judgments far beyond my control.”
Heard wrote that she had been exposed to abuse from a young age, experiencing it as she grew up and when she attended college.
She said that she didn’t speak up, and that she didn’t see herself as a victim. She learned young that “men have the power.”
“I knew certain things early on, without ever having to be told,” she said.
“I knew that men have the power — physically, socially and financially — and that a lot of institutions support that arrangement. I knew this long before I had the words to articulate it (…)
“But I kept quiet — I did not expect filing complaints to bring justice.”
Heard said that following her accusations against Depp, she was told by friends and colleagues that she would never work as an actor again.
She worried that she would be unable to keep her roles in the Justice League and Aquaman movies – the latter of which was recently released worldwide.
“I had the rare vantage point of seeing, in real time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse,” she said.
You can read the full op-ed here.
