Paul Bettany Says It Was ‘Embarrassing’ for Texts with Johnny Depp to Be Used in Libel Court Case

Karwai Tang/WireImage; Arthur Mola/Invision/AP/Shutterstock; Daniele Venturelli / Getty From L to R: Amber Heard; Paul Bettany; Johnny Depp

Paul Bettany is recalling having his text exchanges with Johnny Depp being gone over by lawyers in the latter’s libel court case.

The WandaVision actor, 50, spoke with U.K. outlet The Times about the “embarrassing” incident for an interview published Thursday, saying the court case “was a very surreal moment” and that he “didn’t know Johnny when he was married to” Amber Heard, from whom Depp, 58, had a contentious divorce.

“I knew him before. But we hadn’t spoken for years. During the marriage I didn’t know them. So I wasn’t around for any of that,” Bettany added, after saying, “We live in a world without context.”

The texts came about in 2013, and included one from Depp that read, according to multiple outlets including The Times, “Let’s burn Amber.”

“I’m not sure we should burn Amber. She is delightful company and pleasing on the eye. We could of course do the English course of action and perform a drowning test. Thoughts? You have a swimming pool,” Bettany replied, The Times reports.

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SC Pool – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images Johnny Depp

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“Let’s drown her before we burn her!!!” Depp allegedly replied. (In court, Depp said he and Bettany had done drugs and drank alcohol, according to The Times.)

Depp lost his libel case against The Sun newspaper over the outlet’s 2018 story describing him as a “wife-beater” during his marriage to Heard, 35.

In 2016, Bettany tweeted support for the Pirates of the Caribbean actor, writing, “Known Johnny Depp for years and through several relationships. He’s the sweetest, kindest, gentlest man that I’ve ever known. Just saying.”

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He wrote in a follow-up tweet, “All I’m saying-Domestic violence is a serious allegation. Trial by twitter is unhelpful. Let the facts come out before rushing to judgment.”

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Bettany — who costarred with Depp in Transcendence, The Tourist and Mortdecai — told The Times in his recently published interview, “I know how this works. Anything that you say is oxygen for a fire. And there’s just no f—ing fire.”

“The only real way to deal with this elegantly is to say: I’m not sure there’s anybody who has [a smartphone] that would feel comfortable having a team of lawyers scour their private text messages,” he added.

Bettany’s comments to The Times come after he told the Independent this past December that having the messages go public “was a strange moment,” in that, “You suddenly have one of the most scabrous newspapers in London and their lawyers pouring through your texts for the last 10 years.”

“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,” he added.