Amber Heard
Amber Laura Heard is an American actress. She had her first leading role in the horror film All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, and went on to star in films such as The Ward, Drive Angry, and London Fields.
She has also had supporting roles in films including Pineapple Express, Never Back Down, The Joneses, The Rum Diary, Paranoia, Machete Kills, 3 Days to Kill, Magic Mike XXL, and The Danish Girl. From 2017 to 2023, Heard played Mera in the DC Extended Universe, including the films Justice League, Aquaman, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. She has also acted in television series such as The CW's teen drama Hidden Palms and the Paramount+ fantasy series The Stand.
In 2016, Heard became a volunteer with the American Civil Liberties Union in the capacity of an ACLU Artist Ambassador, a role reserved for individuals who advocate for civil rights and civil liberties. Heard also served as a Human Rights Ambassador for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Heard was married to actor Johnny Depp from 2015 to 2016. Afterward, the pair accused each other of domestic abuse and engaged in two lengthy and high-profile defamation cases, the English Depp v. NGN trial where the court ruled that Depp engaged in domestic abuse against Heard, and the widely publicized American Depp v. Heard trial, where she was found liable for defaming Depp.
Early life
Amber Laura Heard was born on April 22, 1986, in Austin, Texas, the middle child of three daughters of internet researcher Patricia Paige and construction company owner David Clinton Heard. The family lived outside Austin. Heard's father trained 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 could no longer "support the objectification". Raised Catholic, Heard began identifying as an atheist at the age of sixteen after her best friend died in a car crash. The following year, no longer comfortable in "conservative, God-fearin' Texas", Heard dropped out of her Catholic high school to pursue an acting career in Los Angeles. She eventually earned a diploma through a home-study course.Career
2003–2007: Early roles
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, The Mountain, and The O.C.. She made her film debut in a minor role in the sports drama Friday Night Lights, followed by brief supporting roles in films Drop Dead Sexy, North Country, Side FX, Price to Pay, Alpha Dog, and Spin, and a guest-starring spot in an episode of the police procedural crime drama television series 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 aired to replace summer reruns of other series aimed at teenage audiences. That 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.
2008–2016: Mainstream recognition
Heard gained mainstream recognition in 2008 with supporting roles in the Judd Apatow-produced stoner comedy Pineapple Express and the martial arts drama Never Back Down. She also appeared as part of an ensemble cast in an adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's novel The Informers. The following year, Heard starred in The Joneses opposite David Duchovny and Demi Moore; Variety wrote that Heard "more or less steals the show" from Moore. Outside a brief appearance in the box office hit Zombieland, Heard's other films during this time were either independent films that received only limited theatrical release—ExTerminators, The River Why, And Soon the Darkness —or critically panned horror films—The Stepfather, 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 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 as a star in a reasonably priced car coming 33rd of 41 on their Cee'd leaderboard. 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. A commercial failure, grossing $30 million on a $45 million budget, the film received mixed reviews. In 2011, Heard appeared in an advertisement campaign for the fashion brand Guess.
Heard next starred in the thriller Paranoia, the exploitation film Machete Kills, and the satire Syrup. That year also saw the US limited release of All the Boys Love Mandy Lane. Heard's performance in the film was deemed 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 action-thriller 3 Days to Kill.
In 2015, Heard had a prominent role in the comedy-drama Magic Mike XXL, playing the love interest of the film's protagonist, Channing Tatum. Heard also had a small supporting role in Tom Hooper's period drama The Danish Girl, and a starring role opposite James Franco and Ed Harris in the independent crime thriller The Adderall Diaries. IndieWire stated that although Heard was "miscast" in The Adderrall Diaries, 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". Heard also appeared in a November 2015 episode of the American automotive reality series Overhaulin', in which her Mustang received a makeover. It also featured the cast pranking Heard at the behest of Depp.
Heard played the female lead in London Fields, an adaptation of Martin Amis's novel about a clairvoyant femme fatale who knows she will be murdered. It premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. Shortly after the screening, the film was pulled from release due to disagreements between its director and producers, and due to litigation. Heard was sued for $10 million for allegedly breaching performance and promotional obligations. The actress countersued, claiming the producers had violated a nudity rider in her contract. In September 2018, a settlement was reached, and the film was finally released. It received highly negative reviews, and Heard 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 justice". Jane Mulkerrins of The Daily Telegraph wrote that Heard provided "a decent enough turn as the enigmatic " that still could not save the adaptation, while Peter Sobczynski of RogerEbert.com said that she "just does not project the kind of mystery and allure" that the character requires. In 2019, Heard's performance in the film received a nomination for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress.
2017–present: DC Extended Universe and other projects
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 cast as Mera, a princess of an Atlantean kingdom, in the superhero film Justice League. She reprised the role the following year in Aquaman, which co-starred Jason Momoa and marked Heard's first major role in a studio film. She cited Mera's trait of being "a strong, independent, self-possessed superhero in her own right" as one of the reasons for her attraction to the role as well as Mera's rejection of being called Aquawoman instead of by her own name. Aquaman received mixed reviews. It was a commercial success, grossing over $1 billion. The Chicago Tribunes Michael Phillips and The Independents Geoffrey Macnab respectively noted that Heard "lends a blasé air of early '50s B-movie cheese" and that she "camps it up entertainingly" as Mera. That same year, Heard was appointed global ambassador for cosmetics brand 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 Stand, a miniseries based on Stephen King's novel of the same name. She played Nadine Cross, a school teacher who is among the few survivors of an apocalyptic plague. It premiered on CBS All Access in December 2020, with the series finale airing in February 2021. In 2021, Heard reprised her role as Mera in the superhero film Zack Snyder's Justice League, a director's cut of the 2017 film, for which she had also filmed new scenes.
Heard reprised her Mera role in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, a sequel to Aquaman. An online petition to remove Heard from the film began following her ex-husband Depp's loss in his UK libel case and his replacement in the Fantastic Beasts films in 2020. Heard described the campaign as "paid rumors and paid campaigns on social media", and the film's co-producer, Peter Safran, confirmed that Heard would appear in the sequel. By the start of the 2022 Depp v. Heard trial in the US, the petition had reached 2 million signatures. Heard stated that she "'fought really hard to stay in the movie' but that 'they didn't want to include me in the film' and only shot a 'very pared-down version' of her part". Walter Hamada, a former DC Studios president, and James Wan, the film's director, attributed the reduction of Heard's role to the sequel's intention to focus on the relationship between Momoa and Patrick Wilson's characters.
Following the release of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in 2023, several critics observed that, true to what Heard claimed in court, a number of her scenes seem to have been cut out from the film. One critic writing for Business Insider stated that "Despite WB and Wan's claim, it's tough to believe there wasn't another version of the film where Mera teamed up with her husband to track down his brother and the trio confronted Black Manta." Another critic noted that "Heard, a steely highlight of Aquaman, here feels as though her scenes were all added in post" and that "Given the clunky way Mera is literally silenced in the movie... it's hard not to assume that someone important in the production considered her a liability and made a decision of profound, deeply disappointing cowardice: To treat her as radioactive." Echoing these sentiments, another critic wrote that "the fact that Heard's role is so sloppy and awkward suggests this wasn't the plan all along. It truly looks as if someone erased her actual role and then tossed her into the movie at the last minute as an afterthought" and further added that this is consistent with "Heard's allegations of the film cutting her role from the original script". In a more recent interview, Dolph Lundgren confirmed these observations by noting that "the original script was great... I was a bigger part of it and Amber Heard was a bigger part of it" while also lamenting that "The studio decided... to just reshoot a bunch of footage to try to rebuild a slightly different story line... I felt a little disappointed, but life goes on."
Heard's first role after the trial was in the film In the Fire, directed by Conor Allyn. The film premiered at the Taormina Film Fest in June 2023. It was released in October 2023.
In June 2025, Heard was cast in Jeremy O. Harris' play Spirit of the People. The play premiered on July 17 at the Williamstown Theatre Festival's MainStage Theatre.