Amber Heard

Amber Laura Heard born April 22, 1986 is an American actress. In addition to acting, Heard engages in activism for causes such as LGBTQ rights and domestic and sexual violence awareness.

Heard first gained mainstream recognition for supporting roles in the action film Never Back Down (2008) and the stoner comedy Pineapple Express (2008). In the following ten years, she acted mostly in independent films and small-budget productions, such as The Joneses (2009), The Rum Diary (2011), The Danish Girl (2015) and The Adderall Diaries (2015).

In 2017, Heard joined the DC Extended Universe as Atlantean queen Mera in the superhero film Justice League. She reprised that role opposite Jason Momoa in Aquaman (2018), which became the fifth highest-grossing film of 2018. The same year, Heard was named a global spokesperson for the cosmetics giant L’Oréal Paris.

Heard was married to actor Johnny Depp from 2015 to 2017. Their divorce drew significant media attention as she alleged that he had been abusive during most of their relationship. After Heard publicly discussed being the victim of domestic violence in 2019, Depp sued her for defamation, alleging that she had been the abusive party. Heard has denied this; the trial is scheduled for May 2021. Depp also sued the publishers of The Sun in a related libel suit, with Heard as a key witness for the defendants. In November 2020, the High Court of Justice of England and Wales ruled that Depp had lost his case and that the majority of Heard’s allegations had been proven to a civil standard.

Early life

Heard was born in Austin, Texas, to Patricia Paige (née Parsons), an internet researcher (1956–2020), and David Clinton Heard (born 1950), who owned a small construction company. She has a younger sister, Whitney. The family lived outside Austin. Heard’s father broke horses in his free time, and she grew up riding horses, hunting, and fishing with him. She also participated in beauty pageants, although as an adult she has said that she can no longer “support the objectification”. When Heard was 16, her best friend died in a car crash. Heard, who was raised Catholic, subsequently declared herself an atheist. Around the same time, she began questioning society around her. At the age of 17, she no longer felt comfortable in Texas and dropped out of her Catholic high school to move to New York City. She eventually earned a diploma through a home-study course. In New York, she supported herself by modeling, but soon moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting.

Career

Early roles (2003–2007)

Heard’s earliest acting work included appearances in two music videos, Kenny Chesney’s “There Goes My Life” and Eisley’s “I Wasn’t Prepared”, and small supporting roles in the television series Jack & Bobby (2004), The Mountain (2004), and The O.C. (2005). She made her film debut in a minor role in the sports drama Friday Night Lights (2004), followed by brief supporting roles in films such as Drop Dead Sexy (2005), North Country (2005), Side FX (2005), Price to Pay (2006), You Are Here (2006), and Alpha Dog (2006), and a guest starring spot in an episode of the police procedural Criminal Minds. Heard received her first leading role in the unconventional slasher film All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, which premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival, but was not released in Europe until 2008 and in the US until 2013 due to distribution problems.

In 2007, Heard played the love interest of the main character in The CW’s teen drama Hidden Palms, which the network wanted to replace summer reruns of other series aimed for teenage audiences. The series premiered in the US in May 2007 to mixed reviews and poor ratings, leading the CW to air only eight of the planned 12 episodes before canceling it. The same year, Heard also appeared in the short movie Day 73 with Sarah, in the teen drama Remember the Daze, and in an episode of the Showtime series Californication.

Mainstream recognition (2008–2016)

Heard gained moderate mainstream recognition in 2008 with supporting roles in the Judd Apatow-produced stoner comedy Pineapple Express and the martial arts drama Never Back Down, both of which were box office successes. She also appeared as part of an ensemble cast in an adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel The Informers (2008), but the film was a critical failure. The following year, Heard starred in The Joneses (2009) opposite David Duchovny and Demi Moore; Variety wrote that Heard “steals the show” from Moore. Outside a brief appearance in the box office hit Zombieland (2009), Heard’s other films during this time were either independent films that received only limited theatrical release —ExTerminators (2009), The River Why (2010), And Soon the Darkness (2010)— or critically panned horror films —The Stepfather (2009),The Ward.

Heard’s first film release in 2011 was Drive Angry, a supernatural action thriller in which she was paired with Nicolas Cage. The film received mainly bad reviews and underperformed commercially, but film critic Roger Ebert wrote that she “does everything that can possibly be done” with her character, a waitress who becomes entangled in an undead man’s mission to save his daughter from a cult. In early 2011, Heard also appeared on the British television program Top Gear. Heard next starred in NBC’s The Playboy Club, a crime drama series about the original Playboy Club in 1960s Chicago. After poor reviews and ratings as well as protests from both feminists and conservative groups, the series was canceled after only three episodes had aired. Heard’s third role of 2011 was as the love interest of the main character, played by Johnny Depp, in the Hunter S. Thompson adaptation The Rum Diary (2011). The film was not a commercial success, and received mixed reviews, with Heard’s part considered underdeveloped. In 2011, Heard also appeared in an advertisement campaign for the fashion brand Guess.

Heard next starred in the thriller Paranoia (2013), the exploitation film Machete Kills (2013) and the satire Syrup (2013), none of which were critical or commercial successes. The year also saw the US limited release of All the Boys Mandy Lane. Although the film’s reviews were overall mixed to negative, Heard’s performance was called her “most definitive to date” by the Los Angeles Times and “psychologically interesting” by The Washington Post. In 2014, Heard appeared in a supporting role in the commercially successful action-thriller 3 Days to Kill.

Heard had prominent roles in four films released in 2015, which led James Mottram of the British newspaper The Independent to call it a “watershed year” in her career. In the comedy-drama Magic Mike XXL, she played the love interest of the film’s protagonist, Channing Tatum. Like its predecessor, the film was a large box office success. Heard also had a small supporting role in Tom Hooper’s critically successful historical drama The Danish Girl (2015), and a starring role opposite James Franco and Ed Harris in the independent crime thriller The Adderall Diaries (2015). Although reviews for the latter were generally negative, Indiewire stated that although Heard was “miscast”, she “displays much potential and has succeeded in a bid to be taken more seriously.” Her fourth role in 2015 was opposite Christopher Walken in the television film One More Time, which aired on Starz. For her role as a struggling singer-songwriter, she took singing lessons and learned to play piano and guitar. The Los Angeles Times called her performance “superb” and The Film Stage stated that Heard did an “admirable job”.

In addition to her other roles in 2015, Heard played the female lead in London Fields, an adaptation of Martin Amis’ eponymous novel about a clairvoyant who knows she will be murdered. The film was screened for the press at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, but was pulled from the public screening roster after the film’s director, Mathew Cullen —supported by Heard and other actors in the film— sued its producers for promoting a cut of the film he had not agreed on. After further litigation between Heard and Cullen and the producers was settled, London Fields finally received limited release in the US in late 2018. Heard’s performance had received highly negative reviews already in 2015, and she later stated that “it was one of the most difficult movies to film and it has proven to continue to be difficult…I can’t say I did her justice.” Heard also earned a nomination for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress for the film.

DC Extended Universe and following projects (2017 onwards)

In 2017, Heard appeared as part of an ensemble cast in Lake Bell’s indie comedy I Do… Until I Don’t and joined the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) cast as Mera, Aquaman’s Atlantean queen, in the superhero film Justice League. She reprised the role the following year in Aquaman (2018), which co-starred Jason Momoa, Nicole Kidman and Willem Dafoe and marked Heard’s first major role in a studio film. She has stated that one of the reasons attracting her to the part was Mera being “a strong, independent, self-possessed superhero in her own right”, who rejects being called Aquawoman instead of by her own name. Aquaman became the fifth most profitable release of 2018, and the most profitable DCEU installment up to that point. The same year, Heard was appointed global ambassador for cosmetics giant L’Oréal Paris.

In 2019, Heard had supporting roles in the independent dramas Her Smell and Gully. Her only project released in 2020 was the miniseries The Stand, based on Stephen King’s eponymous novel, in which she played Nadine Cross, a school teacher who is among the few survivors of an apocalyptic plague. It co-starred James Marsden, Odessa Young, Alexander Skarsgård and Henry Zaga, and began airing on CBS All Access in December 2020.

Activism

Heard is an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) ambassador for women’s rights with a focus on gender-based violence, and a Human Rights Champion for the Stand Up for Human Rights campaign by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In May 2019, she gave a speech in support of the SHIELD Act on Capitol Hill, discussing her experience of having had her private nude photos hacked and distributed online without her consent during the iCloud leaks of celebrity photos in 2014.

Heard has written about her experiences of domestic violence in the December 2016 issue of Porter magazine and in an op-ed for The Washington Post in December 2018. On November 4, 2019, The New York Times published an op-ed written by Heard on the subject of revenge porn. Heard has also made a public service announcement about domestic violence for the #GirlGaze Project.

Personal life

Heard publicly came out at GLAAD’s 25th anniversary event in 2010, but has stated, “I don’t label myself one way or another—I have had successful relationships with men and now a woman. I love who I love; it’s the person that matters.” Of her decision to come out, she said: “I think when I became aware of my role in the media, I had to ask myself an important question ‘Am I part of the problem?’ And I think that when millions and millions of hard-working, taxpaying Americans are denied their rights and denied their equality you have to ask yourself what are the factors that are an epidemic problem and that’s what this is.”

Heard was in a relationship with photographer Tasya van Ree from 2008 to 2012. In 2009, Heard was arrested in the state of Washington for misdemeanor domestic violence, allegedly after grabbing van Ree and hitting her arm. No charges were filed against Heard. The police lawfully deleted records of the arrest in 2011 after a request, but the King County District Court retained their own records. In 2016, van Ree stated that Heard had been “wrongfully” accused and that the incident had been “misinterpreted and over-sensationalized”.

In 2014, Heard was one of the victims of the iCloud leaks of celebrity photos, in which her private nude photos were hacked and distributed without her consent.

Following her divorce from actor Johnny Depp, Heard dated tech entrepreneur Elon Musk for one year, until early 2018.

Relationship with Johnny Depp

Heard and Depp began dating in 2012 and were married in a civil ceremony in February 2015. In April 2015, Heard breached Australia’s biosecurity laws when she failed to declare her and Depp’s two dogs to the customs when they flew into Queensland, where he was working on a film. Heard pleaded guilty to falsifying quarantine documents, stating that she had made a mistake due to sleep deprivation. She was placed on a $1,000 one-month good behavior bond for producing a false document; Heard and Depp also released a video in which they apologized for their behavior and urged people to adhere to the biosecurity laws. The Guardian called the case the “highest profile criminal quarantine case” in Australian history.

Heard filed for divorce from Depp in May 2016, and obtained a temporary restraining order against him, alleging in her court declaration that he had been verbally and physically abusive throughout their relationship, usually while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Depp denied this and alleged that she was “attempting to secure a premature financial resolution”. A settlement was reached in August 2016, and the divorce was finalized in January 2017. Heard dismissed the restraining order, and they issued a joint statement saying that their “relationship was intensely passionate and at times volatile, but always bound by love. Neither party has made false accusations for financial gain. There was never any intent of physical or emotional harm.” Depp paid Heard a settlement of US$7 million, which she donated to the ACLU and the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

In early 2019, Depp sued Heard for defamation over an op-ed she wrote about her experiences of leaving an abusive relationship, which was published by the The Washington Post in December 2018. Depp also alleged that Heard had been the abuser, and that her allegations constituted a hoax against him. Heard denied Depp’s claims. The case is scheduled to go to trial in Fairfax County, Virginia in May 2021.

Depp also brought a libel lawsuit in the UK against News Group Newspapers (NGN), the company publishing The Sun, which had called him a “wifebeater” in a 2018 article. Heard was a key witness for NGN during the highly publicized trial in July 2020. In November 2020, the High Court of Justice ruled that Depp had lost his claim and that “the great majority of alleged assaults of Ms Heard by Mr Depp have been proved to the civil standard”, rejecting any notion of a hoax against him. The verdict also found that Heard’s career and activism had been negatively affected by Depp’s accusations. Depp plans to appeal the case.

In August 2020, Heard countersued Depp, alleging that he had coordinated “a harassment campaign via Twitter and orchestrating online petitions in an effort to get her fired from Aquaman and L’Oreal”.

Filmography

Film

Television

Music videos