Amber Heard 'Being Deceptive' During Testimony In Johnny Depp Trial, Body Language Expert Claims
KEY POINTS
- Body language expert Janine Driver analyzed the body language Amber Heard displayed during her testimony Wednesday
- Driver noted that Heard often does "start-stop sentences" while talking about Depp's alleged attack on her
- The expert claimed this was "congruent with someone who is being deceptive"
Amber Heard's body language during her explosive testimony this week suggested that the actress was "being deceptive," a body language expert has claimed.
Heard made several allegations of physical and sexual abuse against Johnny Depp when she took the stand for the first time in her ex-husband's multimillion-dollar defamation trial against her in Fairfax County, Virginia, Wednesday.
Janine Driver — who is described on her website as a world-renowned body language expert, New York Times bestselling author and retired ATF investigator — analyzed the body language Heard displayed during the beginning of her testimony, in which the actress told the jury that the trial has been "the most painful and difficult thing I've gone through" after sitting through days of Depp and other previous witnesses talking "about our lives."
In an interview with Court TV, Driver, who was present in the courtroom during the trial, pointed out that Heard sucked in and bit her lip, which the expert believes is a sign of "concern and stress." She likened the action to children sucking their thumbs as a "comforting gesture."
"The problem with Amber in her testimony is that she does all these start-stop sentences. This is congruent with someone who is being deceptive," claimed the author of "You Can't Lie to Me."
Discussing Heard's testimony about the first time Depp allegedly hit her, Driver claimed that the actress appeared to put more emphasis on what happened before and after the alleged attack rather than the actual incident.
The body language expert suggested that this was something she saw in the case of Jussie Smollett, who made false reports to police that he was the victim of a hate crime in January 2019.
"[Heard] is stacking the deck up front," Driver told Court TV. "She gives us this big stress about how much cocaine he had in this bottle. She's giving us irrelevant information. Liars will often do this. They'll give us a lot of truthful information at the front. The problem is that when she gets to the actual attack, it is such a small percentage, maybe 15%."
Driver also analyzed some of Heard's statements, claiming that the actress dropped the pronoun "he" and said "slapped me" instead of "he slapped me" when talking about Depp allegedly hitting her.
"When people are being deceptive, people will have a change in pronouns or they'll drop it. She doesn't say, 'He slapped me,'" the expert claimed. "She also changes her tense. ... The first one is 'slapped,' the second one is 'slapped' [and] the third one is 'slap.' When people are making up stories, they'll talk in the current tense."
Driver also noted that Heard said in court, "Before I knew it, he starts crying," instead of using the past tense while talking about something that allegedly happened years ago.
"Her current tense to past tense is indicative of someone who is making up a story on the spot," the author suggested. "I think parts of it are true, and many of it is deceptive."
Driver said she believes that Heard was telling the truth when the actress recounted Depp allegedly making comments that made her feel that it was "dirty" to be an actor. The expert noted that Heard's pitch and tone were "congruent" and that there were no "start-stop sentences."
Depp is suing Heard for $50 million over a 2018 op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post in which she described herself as a "public figure representing domestic abuse." Though Depp was not named in the article, he claimed it cost him movie roles.
Heard and Depp, who were married from 2015 to 2016, accused each other of acts of physical violence during their relationship. They have both denied the other's claims.
Following Heard's testimony Thursday, her spokesperson told People that Depp's "defamation claim is falling apart so rapidly that his counsel are turning from prosecutor to persecutor."
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