“He’s Just a Jealous Man”: Ellen Barkin Testifies About Her Relationship With Johnny Depp in the ’90s

Actor Ellen Barkin recalls a “jealous,” “controlling” Depp during their brief fling.
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By Barry King/WireImage.

On Thursday, the 19th day of Johnny Depp’s defamation trial against Amber Heard, the jury heard from Depp’s former flame Ellen Barkin, via a pretaped deposition during which she detailed one violent incident and Depp’s jealous disposition. Barkin and Depp were romantically involved and appeared together in a 1998 adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Barkin testified to one night where the actor threw a wine bottle in the general direction of her and some other people in a hotel room he had rented. She didn’t remember who he was having the argument with, but possibly with some friends or assistants (she recalled he had called one of his assistants “Pig.”)

“I went to go home,” Barkin said of the end of their time together. “There was a big goodbye, crying, a lot of jealous ‘don’t do this, don’t do that.’ And I never heard from him again after that.”

“He’s just a jealous man. Controlling,” she said, before clarifying what she meant by “jealous.” “‘Where are you going? Who were you going with? What did you do last night?’ 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.”

In Depp’s defamation trial against The Sun in the U.K., The Sun’s lawyer Sasha Wass read Barkin’s deposition to Depp. In response to Barkin’s characterization of him, he said, “[Barkin] wanted a proper relationship with me and I did not want that,” claiming she was the one who became angry.

Barkin is the only ex of Depp’s that has testified. Other partners like Vanessa Paradis, Kate Moss, and Winona Ryder have not in an official sense, but that hasn’t stopped them from being mentioned during the trial. On Tuesday, the court heard a pretaped testimony from Heard’s friend iO Tillett Wright, who said that Depp told him that “he experienced great bouts of jealousy in relationships that had also led to a lot of drinking and a lot of rage activities. He told me that that happened with Winona. He told me that that happened with Kate. Sorry, with Winona Ryder and Kate Moss. He told me that that happened with Vanessa Paradis.”