Johnny Depp Reveals How He Fell in Love with Amber Heard: 'She Was in My Head'

When Johnny Depp met his wife, Amber Heard, for the first time, he knew they had something special.

The couple, who just celebrated their one-year wedding anniversary, met on the set of 2011’s The Rum Diary. And while there were definitely sparks between them while filming, Depp says it wasn’t until after they parted ways that he realized how strong his feelings for her really were.

“She was in my head, so I tracked her down,” Depp, 52, said onstage at the 31st annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Thursday, where he was presented with the Maltin Modern Master Award for his accomplishments in the film industry.

“We tracked each other down,” he added. “We tracked each other down. Actually, incidentally, it was amazing. It was at the first day of press on The Rum Diary. Then we married that very day!”

Well, not really – the two dated for nearly two years before typing the knot in a private ceremony on a beach in the Bahamas. Lately, they can’t seem to stop gushing over each other.

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“We connect on a lot of levels but the first things that really got me was she’s an aficionado of the blues,” Depp previously said of falling for the actress. “She’s very, very literate. She’s a voracious reader as I have been, so we connected on that as well, and she’s kind of brilliant and beautiful.”

• Reporting by SCOTT HUVER