Amber Heard said she hoped 'Aquaman' premiere would bring attention to her Washington Post op-ed about domestic violence

• Amber Heard said she hoped "Aquaman" would bring attention to her 2018 op-ed about domestic violence.
• Her ex-husband Johnny Depp has accused her of using the op-ed to promote her film career.
• "It doesn't work like that," Heard said Monday. "A major franchise...is not aided by an op-ed..."

Johnny Depp has repeatedly accused his ex-wife Amber Heard of strategically timing the publication of her 2018 Washington Post op-ed about domestic violence to maximize publicity for her role in the DC movie "Aquaman."

But in court on Monday, Heard said he has it backward.

It wasn't the upcoming film she was hoping to promote, Heard testified, but the serious topics she discussed in the op-ed, which is now at the heart of Depp's defamation lawsuit against her.

"The publicity of the movie and the success of the movie would hopefully, in the best-case scenario...lend attention to the issues the op-ed was meant to address," Heard said as the trial resumed Monday following a weeklong break. 

At the center of the ongoing defamation trial playing out in a Virginia court is Heard's December 2018 op-ed, which does not name Depp, but does discuss her alleged experience as a survivor of sexual violence and the vitriol she says she received as a result of speaking publicly about it.

Depp has accused Heard of ruining his reputation and career by insinuating in the op-ed that he abused her. An attorney for the actor said in opening statements that the publication "falsely and unfairly characterized Mr. Depp as a villain." Heard has denied Depp's defamation allegations and says in a $100 million counterclaim he violently assaulted her multiple times before and during their marriage, which ended in divorce in 2016. 

Heard's characterization of her intention regarding the op-ed's release comes after Terrence Dougherty, general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, testified last month that the piece was specifically timed with the premiere of "Aquaman." The civil rights organization helped the actress produce the piece ahead of the film's release, Dougherty said in court. 

"From the ACLU's perspective, Amber is about to receive an incredible amount of press and be in the public eye," Dougherty said in video testimony shown to jurors in April. "So what better a time would it be than now to put out this op-ed, so that it generates significant readership about our issues."

Heard on Monday said that Depp's suggestion that she wrote the op-ed in an attempt to boost ticket sales was inaccurate.

"It doesn't work like that. A major franchise like that is not aided by an op-ed in The Washington Post," she said. 

Heard said she put her name to the op-ed, which was drafted by the ACLU, because she believed in the values it promoted.

"I thought I could lend my voice to that conversation," she said. 

She told the jury that she sought legal advice before the op-ed's publication because she wanted to avoid any retaliation from Depp.

"I didn't want to have any sort of legal problems for talking about what happens to women when they talk about people who are more powerful," Heard said. 

Following her acrimonious divorce from Depp, Heard said she had to fight for the role as Mera in "Aquaman" and "Justice League" due to massive amounts of online hate aimed at her. That same struggle intensified when it came time for talks about the upcoming 2023 "Aquaman" sequel, Heard said.

"I had to fight really hard to be in the movie. They didn't want me to stay in the film," Heard said, acknowledging that she ultimately will have "a very pared-down version of that role" in the next film.