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| Amber Heard – Hollywood actress who being asked to abandon Aquaman 2 role by public. (Photo: Refinery) |
Amber Heard – Hollywood actress who being asked to abandon Aquaman 2 role by public
On Friday, Hollywood actor Johnny Depp said on Instagram that Warner Bros. asked him to leave the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise after he lost his libel case against British tabloid The Sun over an article calling him a “wife-beater.” Some fans accused Warner Bros. of having “double standards” for allowing his ex-wife Amber Heard to continue playing her part as Mera in “Aquaman 2” and Zack Snyder’s “Justice League” but firing Depp from his role as Gellert Grindelwald, IB Times cited.
Born April 22, 1986, Amber Heard is an American actress and model. She started acting as a teenager and appeared in music videos. Amber made her big breakthrough in the stoner comedy Pineapple Express in 2008, after which she went on to star in alternative slasher All The Boys Love Mandy Lane – a role she received praise for. The Stepfather, ExTerminators, Zombieland, and The Joneses all followed before she was cast opposite Johnny Depp in The Rum Diary, according to The Sun.
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| Johny Depp is famous for his role as Captain Jack Sparrow. (Photo: SEE) |
Scandalous relationship with Johnny Depp
In 2009, Depp met Heard on the set of ‘The Rum Diary’. The two began dating “around the end of 2011 or the start of 2012”, as Amber Heard herself claimed. It was also in 2012 that Depp and long-time partner Paradis publicly announced their separation after 14 years of dating, even though the couple already had two children. Heard split up with her partner Tasya van Ree at the same time. After several years of dating, Depp and Heard married in a very private ceremony in their home in LA, with People reporting photos.
Amber Heard’s relationship with Johnny Depp received harsh criticism from Hollywood fans at that time, as they said she had broken the “model relationship” of Johny Depp and his ex-wife Vanessa Paradis. However, only a year after marriage, in 2016, Heard filed for divorce from Depp and accused him of physical abuse, according to Insider.
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| Amber Heard and her ex-husband Johnny Depp. (Photo: NBC) |
An infamous divorce and protracted lawsuit
As Amber Heard filed for divorce from Depp, she claims that Depp hit her several times in March 2013 amid a string of domestic abuse allegations levelled at the actor during their relationship.
She alleged that at the time of filing for divorce, an incident had recently taken place in which Depp threw his phone at her, leaving her with a bruised face. However, a police spokesman told People that an investigation into the domestic incident radio call found that no crime had taken place. Depp denied these accusations and through his representatives said Heard was “attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse.”
Heard then testified under oath at a deposition, but a settlement was eventually reached after she withdrew her request for a domestic violence restraining order. She also rescinded her spousal support request of $50,000 a month. Heard received $7 million from the divorce but donated it to charity, according to People. In 2017, the divorce was finalized.
In December 2018, Heard wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post saying she was abused. Heard wrote: “I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out.” In the article, Depp himself was never mentioned by name.
In 2019, Depp sued her for $50 million for defamation over the article, stating that she “is not a victim of domestic abuse, she is a perpetrator,” and denied that Depp ever abused her. Instead, the suit said that Heard’s allegations were part of an “elaborate hoax to generate positive publicity” for the actress. The suit is still ongoing in the US.
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| Johnny Depp and Amber Heard in “The Rum Diary.” (Photo: Insider) |
2020 libel trial, resulting in Amber Heard’s risk of losing her role in Aquaman 2
On July 7 2020, the three-week libel trial began as Johnny Depp sued News Group Newspapers, the publisher of The Sun over a 2018 article in which they called him a “wife-beater” in reference to Depp and Heard’s former marriage.
Three months after the blockbuster trial began, Judge Mr. Justice Nicol ruled that The Sun was correct in reporting that Depp was violent towards his ex-wife Amber Heard. Four days later on November 6, Depp announced that he had been “asked to resign” from his role as Grindewald in “Fantastic Beasts 3”, leading to his fan’s raging against Amber Heard’s role in “Aquaman 2”.
