An Australian lawyer received a huge shock when he saw the Depp v Heard Netflix documentary and found himself playing a key role in the show.
Criminal defence lawyer Jahan Kalantar gained a huge following on TikTok when he posted daily insights during the Johnny Depp and Amber Herd trial, which has now been used in the documentary released on Thursday.
Netflix dissected the role of social media in shaping public perception and influencing the trial, using Kalantar's commentary to form a significant part of the three-part series.
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"No one is more surprised by my success than me," Kalantar told 9news.com.au
"I'm a quirky suburban solicitor but I think what hopefully I did and what I always tried to do was avoid taking sides and always bring it back to the law."
Kalantar said friends and relatives kept texting him throughout the day on Thursday to tell him that he was on Netflix.
"It was very interesting to see the documentary, which for the first time really took the evidence and placed it side by side (with social media commentary), which I don't think anyone had done before," Kalantar said.
He talked extensively about the trial by using his perspective as a criminal defence lawyer who had been involved in defamation cases.
As a result, Kalantar's TikTok grew from 60,000 followers to 300,000 followers during the trial.
"It seems like a very fair and balanced documentary that canvases the issues quite rightly... it's certainly the most watched trial ever."
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He said it was fascinating to see how social media and public relations came together with the very old concept of the legal system.
"What I tried very hard to do is look at it through the lens that I know, which is the law, and really consign myself to just the facts of the case.
"This was very, very much a public relations type strategy disguised as a lawsuit.
"And the purpose of this lawsuit was really about the vindication of Johnny Depp's name and him being cleared of the allegations that he was a person who assaults women."
Kalantar said both celebrities' teams knew the trial would generate high levels of interest.
"I think that there was an element of mudslinging that went into this naturally but it was really the way they owned their mistakes that that spoke to a lot of people.
"I think we can safely say both of them came out looking like pretty awful people sometimes and people who really should not have behaved the way they did."
One of his most notable TikToks was when he predicted Depp's victory after Heard's cross-examination, citing Camilla Vasquez's skilful dissection of overblown claims.
"The beauty is simplifying the complex but also not losing the fact that it fundamentally will always be very complex," he said.
Depp and Heard were both found liable for defamation in their lawsuits against each other, with a jury awarding damages to both.
The jury found that Heard defamed Depp in three separate statements in an article in the Washington Post, and that Depp defamed Heard with one statement his attorney made.
The jury awarded $US15 million ($20.88 million) be paid to Depp, consisting of $US10 million ($13.94 million) for compensatory damages and $US5 million ($6.97 million) for punitive damages.
Kalantar is a lecturer at Sydney University and is known as JahanKalantarOfficial on TikTok, where he continues to post law-related content.
- Reported with Associated Press
