US actor Mickey Rourke has claimed he got unfairly cancelled after someone made an allegation against him – costing him both his reputation and career – as he weighed in on the Amber Heard and Johnny Depp saga.
The 69-year-old actor told Sky News Australia host Piers Morgan he feels bad for his friend and fellow actor Depp after a jury found he was defamed by his ex-wife.
“I felt bad for somebody that’s trying to get chopped down by some gold digger, you know?” he told Piers Morgan Uncensored, which aired on Tuesday night.
Morgan asked whether he believes Heard is a gold digger, to which Rourke replied, “abso-f**king-lutely. Absolutely”.
Rourke then cited a similar experience to Depp.
“I’ve known Johnny for many years but I don’t really know him intimately,” he said.
“All I can say is I was in a situation one time where I got blamed for something I didn’t do. It cost me movie jobs for several years and it caused me a bad reputation and finally the truth came out but the truth came out after I lost movies and lost jobs.”
Heard was found guilty of three defamation claims filed by her ex-husband after she detailed her experiences as a domestic violence survivor in a 2018 opinion-editorial.
Although she never mentioned Depp by name, the Pirates of the Caribbean star claimed his career was “done” from the second the allegations were made.
But after an explosive six-week court hearing, a judge determined statements about her marriage were “false” and that she had acted with “actual malice”.
She was ordered to pay her ex-husband US$10.35 million in damages of the USD$50 million he sought.
A Virginia judge on Wednesday rejected a 43-page document, which was submitted to the Fairfax County Circuit Court on Friday, demanding a new trial or for the verdict to be “set aside”.
Heard’s lawyers argued that the jurors’ US$10.35 million award was “inconsistent and irreconcilable” with the conclusion that her and Depp had defamed one another.
“The juror was vetted, sat for the entire jury, deliberated and reached a verdict,” Judge Azcarate wrote in a statement on Wednesday.
“The only evidence before this court is that this juror and all jurors followed their oaths, the court’s instructions and orders.
“This court is bound by the competent decision of the jury.”
