Johnny Depp’s Former Friend Says Actor Would Call Fans ‘Sucker Fish’

Photographer iO Tillet Wright was called to the stand by Johnny Depp's lawyers amid his ongoing libel trial with Amber Heard.

Wright, who was friends with Depp and Heard, testified that he'd never seen Depp physically assault his ex-wife, but did speak on the actor's substance abuse and the derogatory comments he made about fans.

The testimony comes as the trial resumed on Monday, 16 May, with just two weeks left for jurors to decide on the outcome.

Depp filed a defamation lawsuit against Heard over an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post in 2018. Though she didn't mention Depp by name, she claimed to be 'a public figure representing domestic abuse'.

Since then, a number of the couples' friends and family have been called to the stand, with Wright being one of the most recent.

When asked about the Pirates of the Caribbean actor's substance abuse, Wright said: "Johnny, when sober, was lovely and magical and very funny. Johnny, when sober, was incredibly lucid, imaginative and I felt a kindred connection with him."

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"Cocaine and alcohol would bring out an ugly side of him, misogynistic and cruel. When he would take any kind of psychedelic, he would become paranoid. When he would drink alcohol, he would become paranoid."

However, Wright added that Depp was trying to get sober for Heard, but said: "It wasn't fun, and that it was distressing and exhausting and very hard to do. He really, really resented having to be sober."

Depp's lawyers also asked Heard about her drug use.

She confirmed that she smoked weed on her 30th birthday in 2016 and has taken MDMA and mushrooms at Coachella the following day.

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Wright, who has been friends with Heard for 11 years, added during his testimony: "Amber was vehemently against cocaine" but that he had seen her 'ingest ecstasy once' on her birthday.

In addition to this, the photographer went on to reveal that Depp had made unkind comments about his fan base in the past, The Mirror reports.

"He would insult his fans, he called them – I remember, he called them remoras, which is a type of suckerfish that attaches itself to the hull of a ship and puts a hole in it and then sinks it."

"He would rail against his mother, his sister – sisters. Pretty much anyone he felt had crossed him or would cross him. He became very nasty," Wright continued.

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