Amber Heard Testified In Court That Her “Aquaman 2” Role Got “Pared Down” After Johnny Depp’s “Smear Campaign” Against Her

The Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard situation has had a lot of long-reaching implications. I mean, it almost got Drew Barrymore canceled! When Johnny testified earlier in the trial that is such a shit show it’s gotten a guest appearance by an actual shit log, he said that he lost his high-paying Pirates of the Caribbean role after Amber wrote the Washington Post op-ed he’s suing her for defamation over. Amber is currently on the stand, and according to her, her role in the upcoming Aquaman 2 got cut down after Johnny’s “smear campaign” against her.

Entertainment Weekly says Amber testified bout how she had to “fight really hard” to keep her work going after their messy break-up. She says Johnny was the mastermind of a “smear campaign” to end her career and ruin her reputation via a “sophisticated PR machine.”

While Heard ultimately did appear in 2017’s Justice League, the “biggest movie opportunity” of her career at that point, she said she had to fight to keep the part. She also testified that her role in Aquaman 2 was significantly pared down after the alleged attacks from Depp’s team in the press.

“I had to fight really hard to keep my career after I got my [restraining order against Depp],” Heard told the court. “I lost opportunities. I got dropped from jobs and campaigns. I fought to keep my job and the biggest movie opportunity I had to date [with] Justice League with the option to [star in] Aquaman. I had to fight really hard to stay in Justice League because that was the time of the divorce.”

Explaining her deal to appear in the superhero franchise, Heard said, “It’s structured like a three-picture option. I signed on to do Justice League, where my character was introduced. The fee is small relative to what it will become if and when you do the other options or movies under that umbrella. So it was the contract for Justice League, which could then become Justice League 2, or it could be Aquaman or it could be some other movie within the DC Universe. And the second picture ended up being Aquaman, and the third being Aquaman 2. And each time the fee goes up.” Heard said she earned $1 million for Aquaman and twice as much for the sequel, in which she reportedly appears on screen for just 10 minutes.

Heard testified she fought hard to stay in Aquaman 2 as well, alleging that Warner Bros., the studio behind the film, “didn’t want to include me.” Asked if she was “actively scheduling timing for filming” for Aquaman 2 before Depp’s alleged smear campaign, Heard responded yes. Asked if she was actively involved after Depp’s team called her a liar in the press, she answered, “No. The communications stopped at that point.”

Heard said she ended up appearing in a “very pared-down version” of the original story planned for her character Mera in Aquaman 2. “I was given a script and then given new versions of the script that had taken away scenes that had action in it, that depicted my character and another character, without giving any spoiler aways, two characters fighting with one another, and they basically took a bunch out of my role,” Heard testified. “They just removed a bunch out.”

Amber also claims to have lost a role, where she was making $200,000 an episode, in the Paramount+ series, The Stand, in 2020. She also says she lost work with L’Oreal, which she’s been working with since 2018, and has “only been able to participate in, I believe, one live event that they also couldn’t promote or use the material from.” But her career isn’t totally in the gutter as she recently did an indie film in Guatemala:

Asked if she’s been able to find work recently, Heard said, “I have done one small independent film. I shot a film in Guatemala. It’s a small independent, meaning it doesn’t have distribution or anything; it’s a lower budget film that I had been attached to for many years called Into the Fire.” She said was paid $65,000 for the role.

So according to both Johnny and Amber, they have lost work and it doesn’t seem like new scripts are coming their way. Well, the good news for them is that this absolute disaster of a trial will definitely help out their careers… and by that I mean the opposite.

Pic: Ron Sachs/CNP/Startraksphoto