Celebrities

Amber Heard's interview 'raises doubts about the legitimacy of her words', says body language expert

Amber Heard's interview 'raises doubts about the legitimacy of her words', says body language expert
Amber Heard says she still loves Johnny Depp
NBC News

Amber Heard has given her first interview since losing the multi-million dollar defamation case against Johnny Depp.

The Aquaman actress sat down with NBC News' Savannah Guthrie about the famous trial that played out on a global scale. Snippets of the interview have been released ahead of the full one-hour special scheduled for 17th June, 8 pm EST.

Heard said she stands by her testimony “to my dying day” but believes that even the best-intentioned juror would’ve found it difficult to avoid seeing the social media bashing she faced.

She then made a baffling reference to Depp's 1990 film Edward Scissorhandsthat left people scratching their heads.

When asked about Camille Vasquez's remark that Heard gave "the performance of a lifetime," she snubbed: "Says the lawyer for the man who convinced the world he had scissors for fingers? I'm the performer?"

Heard then noted that she "listened to weeks of testimony" that insinuated she was a "terrible actress."

"So I'm a bit confused how I could be both," she added.

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Behavioural analyst Jesús Enrique Rosas has weighed in, who boasts over half a million subscribers on his YouTube channel, The Body Language Guy.

He explained to Indy100 that body language helps "identify inconsistencies" in statements or testimonies. This allows professionals to "further question" topics that spark contradictions. "It can also reveal which topics trigger emotional reactions, so you know what really affects the person," he added.

Speaking about the interview segments, Rosas picked up on "rapid changes in contradicting emotions" with "sadness to arrogance, to sadness again, in a matter of seconds."

He also noticed "rapid bursts of blinking signalled anxiety and a lack of facial sync between the upper and lower area of the face." Rosas suggested, "she tried to express emotions with her mouth, but her eyes stayed emotionless most of the time."

These behaviours "raised doubts about the legitimacy of her words and whether she truly believes what she's saying."

Based on the snippets, Rosas told Indy100 that, at times, her "spoken words did not make sense." However, he acknowledged that this could result from "heavy editing."

There has already been widespread backlash from social media users claiming Heard was acting in the NBC special.

While it's difficult for Rosas to reach a conclusion without the entire cut, he suggested that "some displays look a bit exaggerated when her spoken words did not have that much intensity."

The jury delivered the verdict on 1st June, awarding Depp $10m (£8.2m) in compensatory damages and $5m (£4.1m) in punitive damages following Heard's 2018 op-ed piece in The Washington Post.

Depp argued that his ex-wife defamed him in the piece, and despite not explicitly stating his name, his legal team argued it contained “clear implication that Mr Depp is a domestic abuser”, which they said was “categorically and demonstrably false”.

Depp was awarded $10.35m (£8.8m) in damages in total because Virginia state law caps punitive damages at $350,000 (£288,000). Heard was awarded $2m (£1.6m) in compensatory damages because of comments made by Depp’s previous lawyer.

Indy100 reached out to Amber Heard's representative for comment.

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