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Johnny Depp Courtroom Insider Says ‘Depp v. Heard’ Exaggerated the Circus but ‘It Became Our O.J. Trial’ [Exclusive]

Justice for Johnny courtroom insider said the Netflix docuseries 'Depp v. Heard' isn't exactly what court was like.

by Gina Ragusa

Published on August 17, 2023

3 min read

‘Depp v. Heard’ made the trial look like a circus

“I’m a domestic violence survivor, so this is a very, very important case to me,” Dell’Olio recently told Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “The first thing that hit me in the first literal 30 seconds was, ‘Oh my God, they’re just showing the crowd outside the courtroom.’ And they didn’t show that at the beginning for at least the first I believe it was like three weeks. It was not a circus.”

“That last week that I went in for me, I only stayed for the first four weeks of a six-week trial,” she recalled. “That’s when sh** really started to hit the fan. And I was like, ‘Oh, I can’t be here anymore.'”

“Because people were like, calling the cops on each other and they were jumping lines and it became a fan event instead of [a serious trial]. We’ve been following this case for years,” she said. “We’re interested in this case. So that really struck me that they never showed how thin the crowds were and honestly, in the courtroom when it got started, you know?”

Depp v. Heard ‘became our O.J. trial’

Dell’Olio, who sat inside the courtroom for several days, said Depp v. Heard made it appear as though the courtroom was out of control.

“They always play that one clip where Morgan Tremaine is giving that come back to Elaine [Bredehoft],” Dell’Olio said, referring to Heard’s attorney. “And there’s two individuals that make a face. I believe one of them is that DUI guy – he’s showing an obvious reaction.”

“The sheriffs in there gave us the rundown of you will be kicked out and you’ll never come back in,” she recalled about any interference. “I remember watching that at home because at that point in time, I wasn’t in the courtroom. And I was like, ‘Oh, they’re going to be in trouble for how they just behaved in court.'”

“Because Judge Azcarate, she was very professional in the sense of how she wanted to keep that courtroom,” she said. “Especially with the understanding that they had a celebrity there. But it became our O.J. trial. So obviously there’s going to be this sensationalized sense. But I did feel like the documentary played a lot of sensationalized social media clips.”

“And I feel like mine are a little more educational. Sometimes you can throw some humor in but it is at the end of the day, it’s a family court case, even though it is defamation and civil, it’s domestic violence. I think you’re talking about something super serious. And so I’ve always made it a stance, how you have to be respectful of the testimony and everything.”

Timelines in the docuseries didn’t make sense

Dell’Olio was also surprised that one of the audio clips in the docuseries was clipped and edited together. During the trial, she created a slew of TikTok videos that explained each day. “That really shocked me that they took audio clips and mashed them together and made it look like it was one audio,” she said.

“They advertised this saying it’s the first time they’re taking the two testimonies and they’re putting them side by side. But I found, they didn’t do that. The timeline jumped around an awful lot. They also made it seem like Amber and Johnny’s testimonies of how they met and how their romantic relationship began matched up. And that’s not the case at all.”

“And in court, I was shocked that even that didn’t match the other. Like somebody is lying constantly. I was really shocked. They just made it seem like it’s a seamless, love story of how they came to be. And it’s certainly not.”