Amber Heard just gave an interview after losing the defamation trial against Johnny Depp.
Anyone could expect a lot of body language to dissect, but there are also linguistic
and behavior signals that can help you deal with narcissists and toxic personalities.
Welcome back, my Body Language Buddies!
my name is Jesús Enrique Rosas, I'm the Body Language Guy, and it would be great if you
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Let's get down to it!
We are gonna start at the end, with perhaps the strangest statement from this interview.
When Savannah asks Amber if she still has love for Johnny:
- …still have love for Johnny - Yes
- Is that still true?
- Yes.
- After everything.
- Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I love him.
I love him with all my heart.
Now, for all the times Amber tried to disguise her answers, or outright avoid the questions
entirely, this was a direct affirmation.
She could have said, "I don't hold a grudge on him", or "the feelings I once had are no
longer there, but that's ok", or even say: "I wish we both find peace."
Now, regardless if you watched the trial or not, what's relevant here is the direct nature
of such an answer.
And it has to do a lot with damage control, but maybe not for the reasons you think.
This is even more shocking if you immediately watch when Amber once again publicly declares
that Johnny hit her:
- He says he never hit you.
Is that a lie?
- Yes.
- Not one woman has come forward and said he physically hit them.
You were the only one.
- Look what happened to me when I came forward.
Would you?
It is worth remembering that this is what started the whole ordeal.
Amber has just said, not only that Johnny hit her, but that he committed perjury.
Amber's body language here is controlled.
A signal worth mentioning is that swallow right before Savannah wonders why no other
woman has accused Johnny of any of this.
Again, Amber could have said something like 'I can only speak for myself'.
And that would have been a great answer.
But no, she had to imply that they are so afraid of Johnny that none of them has had
the courage of coming forward about this.
So, this is dejá vu, talking about defamation again.
But this is how Amber wants you to think about that evil defamation lawsuit:
- Do you feel like you could be sued again by him for defamation?
- I’m terrified.
Which is a defamation lawsuit is meant to do.
It’s meant to… to take your voice
Yes, according to Amber, if someone sues you for defamation is not because you spread lies
about them.
It's because they are the evil ones trying to take your voice away.
This is a typical narcissistic tactic, when even if you have the right to defend yourself
because they harmed you, they are gonna tell you TO YOUR FACE, that you are the problem.
That you're the one harming the relationship.
And as usual, a common tactic is to distort or reframe your judgment, and in this case,
is your perception of the intentions behind a defamation lawsuit.
But this gets worse, especially when Amber tells this flat out lie:
- Why did you do that if you wanted to just… go on and put this past you?
- Because the op ed was not about my relationship with Johnny.
Wait, what?
That sounds REALLY different from what she said on her final cross examination.
- I know how many people would come out and say whatever for him.
That’s his power.
That’s why I wrote the op ed.
It was speaking to that phenomenon.
How many people would come out in support of him and fall to his power.
- That’s why I wrote the op ed.
Yeah, you can’t help but spot Camille’s reaction when Amber just slipped bad on that
one.
Props to Savannah who insisted that the op ed was unmistakably about Johnny:
- But it alluded to him.
It was unmistakable.
- You know, what the op ed was about, was… me loaning my voice to bigger culture conversations
that we were having at the time.
No body language needed here when Amber contradicted herself like this.
There's a very interesting body language signal when Amber doubles down on her testimony.
Let's see if you can spot it:
- You stand by your accusations and your testimony against Johnny Depp?
- Of course.
And I will till my dying day.
I know what happened to me.
As a survivor, I… till my dying day, will stand by every word of my testimony.
You might have noticed that when she said "of course", she denied with her head.
I've mentioned a few times that one has to be careful with this gesture, because it can
be used for emphasis.
Such as my favorite example, "delicious".
So, maybe she was emphasizing the words "of course"? but when in doubt, you can always
resort to the easiest body language tip, that is to mimic the gesture.
Go ahead, say "of course" out loud and deny with your head at the same time.
Pay attention to how does it feel.
Let me know about your experience in the comments.
Now, we need to talk about Amber making funny references to Johnny's acting roles.
Such as...
- After three and a half weeks I took the stand and saw the courtroom packed, full…
of captain Jack Sparrow fans.
Who were vocal, energised with… all ends of the world
Well, to be fair, that was a literary figure.
But the Edward Scissorhands moment was pure gold:
- The Depp lawyer said, called your testimony the performance of a lifetime.
And said you were acting.
- Says the lawyer for the man who convinced the world he had scissors for fingers?
Amber was pretty calm talking what can only be considered as nonsense.
Because...
you know he was acting, right?
The only body language signal is her eyes going to her right, which we usually do when
our brain enters creative mode.
And boy, was she creative with that answer!
Most of the time, body language signals are a REACTION to something.
For example: a question, or someone arrived, or something happened.
But in some cases, these signals can PRECEDE what the person is about to say.
Watch the next clip and try to spot the signal right at the start, and then what was Amber
going to say immediately after that:
- But what people don’t understand is that it’s actually so much bigger than that.
This is… this is not only about… our first amendment right to speak.
Yes, there was rapid blinking at the start.
We are talking about blinking TEN times in just two seconds.
That is usually a signal of high anxiety.
And that emotional display precedes what Amber was about to claim.
That this was a matter of freedom of speech.
I think deep inside she knew this was an absurd argument.
Other times, Amber's words were not the problem, but the fact that she did not answer directly
to questions.
Watch the next clip and pay attention to her choice of words:
- The Depp team argued that you were the abuser.
That you instigated physical violence.
Did you?
- I never had to instigate it.
I responded to it.
I always warn about unnecessary complex answers to simple questions.
In this case, she said "I never had to instigate it".
A shorter, more direct version would have been: "I never instigated it".
The inclusion of the words "had to" add some sort of a smoke screen.
It's like someone accuses you of eating the last pizza slice, when you did not.
So, instead of saying "I didn't", or "I didn't eat that last pizza slice", you go for "I
never had to eat that last pizza slice".
Do you notice the difference now?
It's a distraction.
You begin to notice that Amber's slip ups are almost 50-50 body language and verbal.
Imagine that you're one of the jurors at the trial and you listen to this:
- When you’re living in violent and it becomes normal, as I testified to, you have to adapt.
You adopt strategies to cope with it.
If it meant the difference between a broken nose or a sore cheek…
First of all, I have my doubts about a true survivor saying that violence eventually becomes
normal.
Violence is never normal.
But what really caught my attention was saying that she adopted strategies that could make
the difference between a broken nose and a sore cheek.
It means that she had to test those tactics until they made a difference.
So she's implying that she went through a few broken noses until she found out the right
prevention tactic.
But you'll remember that she's got only one documented bruise that already raises enough
doubts.
Not to mention the doubts raised by the editing of this interview.
The following clip was in the teasers, but not in the final program.
And you're about to understand why it was conveniently left out:
- I shouldn’t have to donate it in an effort to be believed, I shouldn’t have to earmark
the entirety of that
It's impressive that she can say, quite naturally, that she shouldn't have to donate the money
in the first place so people could actually believe that she donated the money.
It's like I said, "I shouldn't have to actually know how to fly an F-18 for people to believe
that I can fly an F-18, if I claim it"
And she wonders why the pledge vs. donate argument hurt her credibility with the jury.
Who could have thought?
Props to Dave Neal from the channel The Dave Neal Show to spot this huge inconsistency
between what we saw in the trailers, and what was ultimately aired as the 'whole' interview.
And it's much easier if you watch the two following clips, back to back:
- When you’re in an abusive dynamic, psychologically, emotionally and physically, you don’t have
the resources that say, you and I do…
- when you’re in an abusive dynamic, psychologically, emotionally and physically, you don’t have
the luxury of saying hey, this is black and white...
Alright!
that was some amazing editing sleight of hand.
They deleted the part when Amber says that regular victims don't have the resources that
say, you and I do, effectively putting herself out of the group of victims.
They shamelessly cut that off!
An d now that we mention it, why can't Warner Brothers do the same with her character in
Aquaman 2?
One more thing:
- My goal, the only thing I can hope for at this point, it’s just want people to see
me as a human being.
Yeah, because you know how everybody sees her by this point.
If you want to refine your observation skills, all you have to do is download my 100+ body
language tips, right in the description of this video.
My name is Jesús Enrique Rosas and it will always be a pleasure, my body language buddies!
Much Love, and Bliss