A recurring storyline in the defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard is that both parties claim that they lost work because of the other. Depp’s talent manager testified that a $22.5 million deal to play Jack Sparrow in a sixth Pirates of the Caribbean movie vanished after Heard published an op-ed in the Washington Post in which she called herself a “public figure representing domestic abuse,” while Heard said that she had to “fight really hard” to stay in the entertainment industry after her split with Depp.
”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,” she said. “I had to fight really hard to stay in Justice League because that was the time of the divorce.” Heard also claimed that Warner Bros. “didn’t want to include me” in the film’s sequel, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and that the final script featured a “pared-down version” of the character’s original arc. “They basically took a bunch out of my role,” she added. But her agent believes that her role was minimized due to a “lack of chemistry” with Jason Momoa.
In a pre-recorded deposition, [agent] Jessica Kovacevic testified about Heard’s career before and after her split from ex-husband Johnny Depp, sharing her belief that Warner Bros. wanted to replace Heard as Mera amidst the flurry of bad press pertaining to the split. Instead, Kovacevic testified that the studio cited Heard’s lack of chemistry with Momoa as the reason they were considering recasting her.
There was also talk of recasting the role of Mera with another actress, because in Kovacevic’s words, “no one wants that association” with “bad press.” But Heard ultimately remained in the sequel, although reportedly only for 10 minutes.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom comes out on March 17, 2023.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)