James Franco visited Amber Heard’s home before she filed for divorce from Johnny Depp in 2016, the actress acknowledged during a cross-examination on Tuesday.
Heard was questioned by Depp’s legal team about surveillance footage of her escorting Franco to an elevator from May 22, 2016. Five days later, Heard requested a temporary domestic violence restraining order against Depp—who was her husband at that time. Depp’s team asked why the actress “felt comfortable having James Franco over” on another evening that week.
“I do not know when James came over,” she responded, before Depp lawyer Camille Vasquez played the footage, which showed her and Franco enter an elevator around 11 p.m.
Heard, who said she was “close” friends with Franco, and confirmed he was in the footage, said she was unaware of if she knew her husband was out of town at the time. Heard filed for divorce from Depp a day later.
The actress has previously alleged that Depp accused her of having affairs and was jealous of her costars. On Monday, she testified that Depp once struck her after he mistook a body double in a sex scene during London Fields as Heard. She claimed that Depp called her a “liar and a whore” and alleged that he then “slapped me in the face in the bedroom.”
“At another moment, he punched me across the jaw. At one point he either pushed or threw…. I went flying into this old church furniture,” Heard said. “I later thought I had a concussion.”
The trial, which stemmed from a Washington Post op-ed where Heard wrote that she was a victim of domestic violence, has been going on since April 11. Both Heard and Depp have accused each other of abuse during their marriage, which ended in 2016.
