NEWSPaul Bettany Hasn't 'Spoken' to Johnny Depp Since Their Controversial Texts Were Exposed in Actor's Court Battle With Ex Amber Heard
Johnny Depp described Paul Bettany as a 'close friend' during his 2022 defamation trial against Amber Heard.
Oct. 16 2026, Published 7:11 p.m. ET
Paul Bettany hasn't said a word to Johnny Depp since their text messages were exposed during the Beetlejuice actor's highly publicized legal battle with Amber Heard.
"I hadn’t spoken to Johnny in years when that happened and I haven’t spoken to him since," Bettany, 55, said in an interview published on Friday, October 16. "I was being painted as this close friend of a guy I hadn’t spoken to in years and, honestly, amid all the s--- two celebrities threw at each other, that bit was the most odd."
Paul Bettany on Staying Silent Amid Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's Legal Proceedings
Text messages between Paul Bettany and Johnny Depp were presented during the actor's legal battle with Amber Heard.
The VisionQuest actor also addressed why he chose to stay silent during the legal proceedings. "So I decided to say nothing because, I think, people know me," he said. "I’ve been married 23 years and, for what I do, I live an incredibly quiet life. Everybody kind of thought this is probably a nothing burger – and left it alone."
Bettany's private text messages with Depp, 63, about his ex-wife, 40, were used as evidence in the Pirate of the Caribbean actor's 2020 libel lawsuit against The Sun, which responded to the publication describing him as a "wife beater."
'Let's Burn Amber'
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard were married from 2015 to 2017.
"Let’s burn Amber!!!" Depp wrote in a 2013 text message sent to Bettany, to which he responded, "Having thought it through, I don’t think we should burn Amber – she’s delightful company and easy on the eye, plus I’m not sure she’s a witch. We could of course try the English course of action in these predicaments – we do a drowning test. Thoughts?"
"Let's drown her before we burn her!!! I will f--- her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she's dead," Depp wrote, according to the messages.
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Amber Heard and Johnny Depp Settled Defamation Case in December 2022
Amber Heard was found liable of defamation against Johnny Depp on June 1, 2022.
Depp and Bettany costarred in several films over the years, including 2010's The Tourist, 2014's Transcendence and 2015's Mortdecai.
Their connection continued to draw attention during Depp's 2022 defamation suit against Heard, where the Alice in Wonderland star described him as one of his "close friends."
A jury found the Aquaman actress liable in June 2022 for defaming Depp in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed. The case was settled in December 2022 after Heard appealed the verdict.
'A Strange Moment'
Paul Bettany addressed his text messages with Johnny Depp in a December 2021 interview.
Bettany first spoke out about the text messages with Depp and his connection to the controversial case in December 2021, calling it a "strange moment."
"What was strange about it was you suddenly have one of the most scabrous newspapers in London and their lawyers pouring through your texts for the last 10 years," he said. "Can you imagine what it would be like, honestly, to have a bunch of lawyers go through every one of your emails and texts for 10 years? All I can tell you is that it was an unpleasant feeling."
