Amber Heard is furious and has denied a report that she is about to be fired from her role as Mera in "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" and a replacement is being looked for. Heard's reaction came after the website JustJared published a post saying that the actress has been "cut" from the $2 million role in the "Aquaman" sequel and would be "recast."
Heard's star power has been tainted in recent months by a highly public defamation trial in which her ex-husband Johnny Depp sued her over a 2018 Washington Post column that he said implied he was physically violent to her. Heard lost the defamation suit but on Tuesday in her first interview since then once again went on to claim that Depp physically abused her.
Troubled Star
On Tuesday, Heard, 36, faced severe backlash after she said in her first interview since losing the defamation suit against Depp that she was physically abused by the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star. Hours later, JustJared reported that Heard had been officially dropped from Aquaman 2.
This report claimed that despite Heard having already finished filming the sequel to the 2018 sci-fi blockbuster in which she co-starred with Jason Momoa, Warner Bros will reshoot the sequences with another actress.
"Warner Brothers decided to recast Amber Heard's role after screen testing the movie," according to an insider claimed JustJared. According to the insider, they were going to do reshoots of Heard's scenes with Momoa and Nicole Kidman.
Although Warner Bros. is yet to comment on the report, a representative of Heard denied the rumor saying that she is very much in "Aquaman 2" and the report is completely false.
"The rumor mill continues as it has from day one — inaccurate, insensitive and slightly insane," the spokesperson for Heard said in a statement.
Fate Hangs in Balance
Heard previously starred as Mera in the first "Aquaman," as well as in "Justice League" and "Zack Snyder's Justice League" in a reconfigured version.
Although Heard has denied the report and as of now she is still not officially out of the sequel, the actress' fate hangs in balance as Warner Bros. earlier said that they had contemplated recasting her. During her and Depp's protracted six-week defamation trial, Warner Bros. executive Walter Hamada testified that producers had considered recasting Heard due to concerns about her lack of "natural chemistry" with co-star Momoa.
Hamada in his testimony also said that Heard was still in the project although the studio considered recasting her. However, it had nothing to do with her fight with Depp but Heard's lack of chemistry with Momoa was to be blamed for this. However, the production house eventually decided against it and decided to keep her in the film.
"Editorially they were able to make that relationship work in the movie. There was a concern it took a lot of effort to get there," Hamada said.
Toward the end of the court procedures, an internet petition to remove Heard from the sequel was also launched that garnered 4.6 million signatures in a matter of weeks.
Not only Warner Bros. even Heard by now knows that her fate now hangs in balance as the actress said during the defamation trial with Depp that Warner Brothers "didn't want to include me" in the DC Comics sequel.
She also said that she was "actively scheduling timing for filming" the superhero movie up until Depp's legal team reportedly initiated a campaign against her. She also claimed that her scenes in the film were drastically being cut.
"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 spoilers away, two characters fighting with one another, and they basically took a bunch out of my role," she told during the defamation trial. "They just removed a bunch out."
However, Hamada denied Heard's scenes being cut.
