Amber Heard has claimed her role in the Aquaman sequel has been reduced amid her court battle with ex-husband Johnny Depp.
Speaking in court on Monday (May 16), Heard stated “they didn’t want to include me in the film” and she only shot a “very pared down version” of her part as Mera after she “fought really hard to stay in the movie”.
“I was given a script and then given new versions of the script that had taken away scenes that had action in it,” Heard said (via Yahoo Entertainment). “That depicted my character and another character, without giving any spoilers away, two characters fighting with one another. They basically took a bunch out of my role. They just removed a bunch.”
Heard said she “couldn’t renegotiate” her contract, which stated she’d receive $2million for the role in the sequel, double her payment for the first movie.
Last month, a petition to remove Heard from Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom reached two million signatures. Speaking on Deadline’s Hero Nation podcast in July last year, before filming began in January 2022, Aquaman 2 producer Peter Safran denied Heard’s role would be affected following fan pressure.
“I don’t think we’re ever going to react to, honestly, pure fan pressure,” Safran said at the time. “You gotta do what’s best for the movie. We felt that if it’s [director] James Wan and [star] Jason Momoa, it should be Amber Heard. That’s really what it was.
“One is not unaware of what is going on in the Twitter-verse, but that doesn’t mean you have to react to it or take it as gospel or accede to their wishes. You have to do what’s right for the film, and that’s really where we landed on it.”
Depp is currently suing his ex-wife for defamation over a 2018 op-ed in The Washington Post, where she wrote about being a survivor of domestic violence.
Heard didn’t mention Depp by name in the piece, though Depp’s lawyers argue it falsely implies she was sexually and physically abused by him in their marriage. She has also filed a counterclaim against her former husband, arguing he has created a smear campaign against her.
NME has reached out to Warner Bros. for comment.
Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom is scheduled to be released in cinemas on March 17, 2023.
