At the time, Depp’s family was the mother of his children, Vanessa Paradis, their daughter Lilly-Rose, and their son, Jack.

He had to hire more security staff to cover them all as Vanessa would sometimes work in France, while the family was based in LA.

To cover everyone, including taking the children to school, protecting the house etc, the security team grew a lot.

Depp says his life changed after the movie was such a success with people trying to climb the gates of his LA house to see Captain Jack. He was followed by hoard of paparazzi.

“Anonymity has left the building,” he says.

He was worried about his children’s safety and more security guards were hired.

Depp adds that he can’t complain about the situation given his job, but life became a “strategic mission”.

After studying and working on his acting he began to feel more comfortable and confident as an actor saying the role that changed things for him was being cast in Oliver Stone’s Platoon.

Jumping forward through his career, he is asked about how he became involved with Disney and Pirates of the Caribbean, recalling being offered another role first.

He wanted to create a character that appeals to all ages and was inspired by cartoon characters. He talks about how different characters are formed like “a soup” in his head.

Depp says after receiving the script for Pirates in 2002 he formed the character of Captain Jack Sparrow out of a combination of Keith Richards, cartoon skunk Pepe Le Pew, and the idea of a man who has been at sea so long he doesn’t have “land legs”.

Asked how he felt the movie turned out, he says: “I didn’t see it,” adding: “But the film did pretty well, apparently. And they wanted to keep going, making more. And I was fine to do that.”

Depp recalls getting into acting by accident through his friend Nicholas Cage who encouraged him to meet with his agent Eileen Feldman. He ended up reading for a part in A Nightmare on Elm Street.

He thought acting was a way to pay the bills, and kept getting cast before landing a recurring role on TV show 21 Jump Street at the age of 22.

Depp adds that he is naturally a shy person and was used to being one part of a band, but realised he was now on this acting path. He said he was having to deal with new notoriety and found it odd and he has never got used to it.

Depp recalls a ritual of Heard taking off his boots and giving him a glass of wine when he would get home. He said he’d never experienced anything like that in his life.

One night he took his own boots off and he says Heard approached with a look on her face “what did you just do?” He said he replied that he didn’t know what she meant.

He says she replied: “No, no, no. That’s my job. You don’t do that.”

Depp says he took pause that she was visibly shaken or upset that he had broken her rules of routine.

He added that once you notice things like that, you notice other things.

Mr Depp opened his testimony on Tuesday afternoon in Fairfax County, Virginia, by calling his ex-wife’s claims “heinous,” “disturbing” and “not based in any species of truth”.

The Hollywood veteran invoked Disney characters in explaining how the allegations have affected his career, saying: “[It’s] very strange when one day you’re Cinderella so to speak and then in 0.6 seconds you’re Quasimodo.”

Megan Sheets reports.

Asked how all of this impacted his relationship with Heard, he speaks glowingly of her at the beginning of the relationship: “She was too good to be true. She was attentive, she was loving, she was smart, she was kind, she was funny, she was understanding.”

Asked how he felt about his father leaving, he says he was “very disappointed in him” as he thought he left in a “cowardly” and “sneaky” manner.

Depp says he found out the truth of the situation much later and realised he was wrong about his first impression of him leaving the family.

He says the overall experience left him with the lesson learned that to raise children well he would do the opposite of what his parents did.

Depp says neither he nor the mother of his children, Vanessa Paradis, ever raised their voices to their children.

After the marriage ended, Depp tells the court his mother attempted suicide. He stands and reenacts the condition in which he found her that day.

Depp recalls his parents’ marriage ending and his father leaving one day as if he was going to work, but taking all of his belongings without saying anything. His mother only found out when she returned home.

He tells the court he went to his dad’s work and said “looks like someone stole all of your clothes”.

His father said: “Yes. I’m done. You’re the man now.”