As the messy defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard continues, more of Depp’s former associates have been coming in to testify, including his ex-agent Tracey Jacobs.
According to Deadline, Jacobs, who had represented Depp from the 1990s to 2016, took the stand in a pre-recorded deposition and told the story of when the disgraced actor randomly demanded millions from his agency. In the recorded testimony, Heard’s attorney asked Jacobs, “So Mr. Depp came in and said, ‘I want you to get $20 million for me?'” Jacobs replied, “Actually it was, ‘I want you to give me 20 million,’ The question was not asked as a loan.”
UTA did not oblige. Jacobs said that UTA told Depp that “we are not in a position to give our clients that kind of money. We are not a bank.” Still, the actor believed he should have gotten the money because of the length of time that the agency had represented him, Jacobs later said. They were later able to get him a loan through a bank.
Depp’s money troubles didn’t stop there. His former business manager later described that the actor’s spending had “grown very large” and he was eventually unable to pay his taxes in 2015. After Depp was dropped by UTA in 2016, Jacobs said that the actor lost out on money and jobs. “His star had dimmed due to it having harder to get him jobs due to the reputation he had acquired due to his lateness and other things,” Jacobs added.
Jacobs then described Depp’s reputation of being ‘difficult’ on sets, which would get her in trouble with studios. “I would get yelled at” by the studio, Jacobs said. “I never said to him, ‘You are a difficult client.’ I never used those words, but was very honest with him. I said, ‘You have got to stop doing this. This is hurting you,’ and it did.”
This is just the latest in the explosive trial between the two celebs after Depp sued Heard for defamation after she published an op-ed in 2018 regarding her experience with abuse. Heard took the stand this week and described her life after the split when Depp’s ‘smear campaign’ caused her to lose out on work.
