Johnny Depp's ex-girlfriend, Ellen Barkin, testified on Thursday about the actor once throwing a wine bottle in her direction, and said he could be "jealous" and "controlling."
Depp has taken his ex-wife, Amber Heard, to trial for defamation, claiming she ruined his reputation and career by insinuating in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed that she had been the victim of domestic violence. Heard is fighting the lawsuit and spent several days on the stand describing multiple incidents where she said Depp physically and sexually assaulted her.
On Thursday, the jury was shown a pre-recorded deposition from Barkin, who starred with Depp in the 1998 film "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."
Barkin said she first met Depp in 1990, and says he was drunk a lot of the time she knew him. She said she witnessed Depp doing hallucinogenics, cocaine, and marijuana in her presence.
When asked whether Depp ever got out of control, Barkin said he had, and pointed to an incident while they were filming "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" in 1997.
Barkin said she witnessed Depp throw a bottle of wine across his hotel room in the direction of where she and others were gathered.
Barkin said "a fight was going on" between Depp and his friends but she isn't sure why he threw the bottle.
She said the bottle didn't hit her or anyone else.
Barkin said she and Depp started out friends, but their relationship became sexual in nature when she moved to Hollywood in 1994. She estimated they were together between three to six months, before Depp broke up with her, after getting upset that she was leaving him to return to her home for a few days.
"I went to go home, there was a big goodbye, crying, a lot of jealousy. 'Don't do this, don't do that,'" she said. "And I never heard from him again after that."
Barkin said Depp once got mad after seeing a scratch on her back, and accused her of sleeping with someone else.
"I had a scratch on my back once that got him very, very angry because he insisted it came from me having sex with a person who wasn't him," Barkin said.
"He's just a jealous man, controlling," she added. "'Where are you going? Who are you going with? What did you do last night.'"
Heard has described Depp in similar — if more extreme — terms. She said he used drugs and alcohol often, and while under the influence would often falsely accuse her of infidelity. Depp sought to keep tabs on her co-stars in movies and tried to ensure her roles would not involve nudity, Heard said.
Barkin's deposition was also used in Depp's lawsuit against the UK tabloid "The Sun," which labeled him a "wife beater" over the allegations of domestic violence. Depp lost that case, with a judge ruling that Heard's allegations were substantially true.
During the UK trial, Depp accused Barkin of holding a grudge against him because he didn't want a serious relationship with her.
"She wanted more than a relationship, she wanted a proper relationship with me and I did not want that," Depp told the court, according to MailOnline. "I didn't feel the same about her as she did me and I suppose from that moment on she became very, very angry and since then I have not spoken to Ms. Barkin."
