The opening lines of Amber Heard’s testimony were taken from the 1999 movie The Talented Mr Ripley.
Ms Heard did not begin her testimony with this quote, and did not say these words at any point during her first day on the stand.
A post circulating on Facebook claims that the actor Amber Heard used a quote from a movie in the opening lines of her testimony during the trial of a defamation case brought against her by her former husband, the actor Johnny Depp.
A number of people have used this claim to suggest that Ms Heard has been “acting” during her testimony.
Ms Heard did not begin her testimony with this quote, nor did she say it at any point during her first day on the witness stand.
According to the post, Ms Heard’s “opening lines” as she took the stand for the first day of her testimony on 4 May were: “The thing with (Johnny)… it’s like the sun shines on you, and it’s glorious. And then he forgets you and it’s very, very cold … When you have his attention, you feel like you’re the only person in the world, that’s why everybody loves him so much.”
These words are taken directly from a scene in the 1999 film The Talented Mr Ripley, with the name replaced with Mr Depp’s.
The original quote from the movie, about 40 minutes in, is said by Gwyneth Paltrow’s character, Marge Sherwood, who says of Jude Law’s character Dickie Greenleaf: “The thing with Dickie, it’s like the sun shines on you, and it’s glorious. And then he forgets you and it’s very, very cold … When you have his attention, you feel like you’re the only person in the world, that’s why everybody loves him.”
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Despite several posts sharing the same claim, Ms Heard did not begin her testimony by quoting these lines.
Upon taking to the stand for the first time during the trial on 4 May, Ms Heard first spoke to confirm her name, address and age, before going on to answer a series of questions about her daughter and her profession. Her first full comments, in response to being asked “Why are you here?” were “I am here because my ex-husband is suing me for an op-ed I wrote.”
Later in her testimony Ms Heard did make some comments of a similar sentiment to those in the film, telling the court of the early period of her relationship with Mr Depp: “When I was around Johnny I felt like the most beautiful person in the whole world. It made me feel seen, it made me feel like a million dollars.”
However, according to the Associated Press at no point on the first day she took the stand did Ms Heard directly quote The Talented Mr Ripley.
Ms Heard is scheduled to continue her testimony when the trial resumes on 16 May.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because video of Ms Heard’s testimony shows she did not say these words at any point during her first day of testimony.
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