Paul Bettany found it "embarrassing" to have his text messages to Johnny Depp brought up in court.
The 'WandaVision' actor's 2013 exchanges with his old friend were discussed during the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' star's unsuccessful libel case against The Sun newspaper - who he sued for branding him a "wife-beater" - but he insisted they hadn't spoken "for years" before the legal battle and he "didn't know" what had happened during Johnny's doomed marriage to Amber Heard.
Admitting it was "embarrassing" for the messages to be discussed, he added to The Times newspaper: “And we live in a world without context. I didn’t know Johnny when he was married to Amber. I knew him before. But we hadn’t spoken for years. During the marriage I didn’t know them.
"So I wasn’t around for any of that.”
The court case - which included Johnny telling the court he and Paul had taken drugs and drank alcohol together - was a "very surreal moment" for the 50-year-old star and something he felt uncomfortable talking about.
He explained: “Because I know how this works. Anything that you say is oxygen for a fire. And there’s just no f****** fire.
"The only real way to deal with this elegantly is to say: I’m not sure there’s anybody who has one of these devices [a smartphone] that would feel comfortable having a team of lawyers scour their private text messages.”
The text exchange that was discussed in court began with a message Johnny - who has repeatedly denied allegations he attacked his ex-wife - sent to Paul which read: "Let’s burn Amber.”
The 'Wimbledon' actor replied: “I’m not sure we should burn Amber. She is delightful company and pleasing on the eye. We could of course do the English course of action and perform a drowning test. Thoughts? You have a swimming pool.”
His friend wrote: “Let’s drown her before we burn her!!! I will f*** her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she’s dead.”
Paul then allegedly responded: “My thoughts entirely. Let’s be certain before we pronounce her a witch.”
