Were you almost starting to forget about the controversial and dragged-out legal battle between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard? Well, don’t worry, because Hollywood is inclined to bring it to your attention again – this time in the form of a documentary.
Depp v. Heard is a new documentary releasing on Netflix today, chronicling the events of the infamous defamation trial from 2022. The case was heavily publicized and covered with meticulous detail in the media, so many viewers will already have a lot of context for the things they’re seeing on screen, the only difference this time being that it is through filmmaker Emma Cooper’s lens that we get to reflect on the phenomenon itself.
There are a lot of strong sentiments among the online community as to who was really at fault based on the evidence presented, so Cooper had to make sure to exclude her own personal biases as much as possible. In fact, in a new interview with Variety, the director says that the documentary is about a “balanced level of hate.”
“You know, it’s a balanced level of hate, I pride myself that it tends to be very 50/50.”
Apparently, this three-part series isn’t about restating the facts, but rather how this trial reflected on us onlookers who were so predisposed to follow it.
“I found myself compulsively watching the live feed, and then discussing it with my friends, and looking at what everybody was saying on social. And I wondered what that said about me that I was so interested in what felt like a rather sad open event of a private relationship.”
You may not want to hear another word about Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, but I think this might turn out to be a very fascinating watch. I often caught myself wondering why everyone suddenly became so obsessed with what went on in someone’s personal life — even a celebrity, at that — and Depp v. Heard may, after all, contain the breadcrumbs that lead to the answer.