Instagram influencer Jessica Reed Kraus reveals she had a phone call with Johnny Depp before the defamation trial.
Unlike Amber Heard, Depp has not conducted any interviews following the trial.
The actor largely came out victorious, with the jury awarding him $10.35 million after finding his ex-wife defamed him on all three counts.
Instagram influencer reveals how she contacted Johnny Depp
Jessica Reed Kraus wrote on her Substack via Insider that she spoke with Depp for 90 minutes, during which he was critical of journalistic integrity.
She wrote that an old friend of Johnny’s has a wife who was familiar with Kraus’ work.
Kraus’ Instagram page, houseinhabit, has over 980,000 Instagram followers.
She built an audience by covering the Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial in New York, the Britney Spears conservatorship battle, and the death of Gabby Petito.
Depp’s friend praised her work before the Hollywood actor joined the call. She wrote that his voice needed “no introduction.”
She quoted the actor praising her work as a writer and social media influencer.
“‘I don’t know you but I know, just by the words you use and the aesthetic in your work, that I trust you,'” Kraus wrote, quoting Depp.
“He touches briefly on the Rolling Stone article that shredded his reputation and ruined his trust in media. A betrayal he hasn’t yet recovered from.”
The reference is about a June 2018 feature article about Depp that wrote about his drug use, failed marriages, and lavish spending.
Kraus talks about Johnny Depp’s personality
During their 90-minute conversation, the pair talked about their passion books. She wrote that they discussed his late friend Hunter S. Thompson and David Foster Wallace.
The Pirates of the Caribbean star also told her he uses a typewriter, as seen in his first TikTok post, and expressed his concern about our obsessive dependency on modern technology such as cell phones and laptops.
She also denied being a Depp fan before the trial, which she covered believing the actor.
“Contrary to the accusations that will later pin me as a Die hard Depp fan, I don’t know much about him, so these revelations, slight as they might be, are news to me,” Kraus wrote.
She said the actor “bathed in slow southern charm.”
“In conversation, he comes across smart, curious, funny and polite,” Kraus wrote before revealing more about his accent.
“Prone to shifting into character voices exactly as one might expect from the Johnny Depp we know onscreen. But other than that, he is humble, down to earth, and incredibly attentive.”