Amber Heard breaks silence on Johnny Depp trial at Sundance Film Festival

Amber Heard has spoken publicly about the lasting impact of her highly publicized legal battles with ex-husband Johnny Depp.

On January 24, the actress appeared in Silenced, a new documentary that premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.

The film examines how defamation laws are increasingly used against abuse survivors and journalists, and features Heard in one of her most candid interviews since the conclusion of the Depp trial.

“This is not about me,” Heard says in the documentary, according to Variety. “I have lost my ability to speak. I am not here to tell my story. I don’t want to tell my story. In fact, I don’t want to use my voice anymore.”

Directed by Selina Miles, Silenced also includes international human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson, who worked with Heard during Depp’s 2020 lawsuit against British newspaper The Sun.

Robinson appears alongside Heard as she reflects on how speaking publicly after the UK trial ultimately worsened the backlash she faced.

“I remember at the close of the trial, the idea that I could say something to the press came up. [Robinson] asked if I was sure about that. [I thought], ‘If they throw things at me, it will make this point more obvious.’ I didn’t understand it could get so much worse for me as a woman, using my voice,” Heard shared.

Despite her reluctance to speak publicly, Heard says she draws strength from others who continue to challenge power structures.

“Looking at my daughter’s face as she grows up and slowly starts to walk into this world, I believe it can be better,” added Heard – who is now a mother of three, including twins Ocean and Agnes, and daughter Oonagh Paige.

In 2016, Amber Heard filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences and a temporary restraining order against Depp amid allegations of domestic violence.

Although the pair reached a $7 million divorce settlement, Depp later sued Heard for defamation over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she described herself as a survivor of abuse.

In 2020, Depp lost his UK libel case against The Sun, with the court ruling that the publication’s description of him as a “wife-beater” was substantially true.

However, in a separate US trial in 2022, a jury found Heard liable for defamation and ordered her to pay damages. Depp was also ordered to pay Heard damages for one of her counterclaims.

The two later reached a settlement in which Heard agreed to pay Depp $1 million, which he pledged to donate to charity.