This week, a rumor started circulating that Amber Heard would be cut from “Aquaman” 2, but the actress vehemently denies the claim.
“The rumor mill continues as it has from day one — inaccurate, insensitive, and slightly insane,” Heard’s representative told Fox News Digital.
Heard’s involvement in the project has become a source of fascination now that her ex Johnny Depp was awarded $15 million in his highly publicized defamation case against her. Some see this win as the end of the #MeToo era.
Part of Depp’s assertions was that Heard’s original claims of abuse significantly hurt his career when he lost his lucrative role in Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean.” After some details of their relationship and Heard’s lies and manipulation went public, her reputation also suffered.
The movie “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” is scheduled to be released in 2023, with Heard reprising her role as Mera. She’s not a major character, spurring movie fans to demand her removal from the project.
Film journalist Grace Randolph first shared the news of Heard’s screen time getting cut.
“I hear #AmberHeard has less than 10 min of screentime in #Aquaman2,” Randolph tweeted. This news came as the Change.org petition to have Heard removed gathered more than 3 million signatures.
Also, the actress claimed during her testimony that she was released from her contract. She said she had to “fight” to stay in the film, The Daily Wire previously reported.
“They released me from my contract,” Heard told Depp’s attorney Camille Vasquez. “And I fought to stay in it, and they kept me in it. I just don’t know how much I’m in, actually, of the final cut.”
“I don’t know if I will even be in the final cut or how much I will be,” the actress added. “It was difficult to stay in the movie.”
Heard asserted that her being cut was an example of discrimination against women speaking up about domestic violence, while Depp’s attorneys pointed out that it could have been because of Heard’s past actions, like physically assaulting Depp, going public.
“Aquaman” 2 producer Peter Safran said in July 2021 that removing Heard’s character would take more than an online petition created by fans.
“I don’t think we’re ever going to react to, honestly, pure fan pressure. You gotta do what’s best for the movie. We felt that if it’s [director] James Wan, and Jason Momoa, it should be Amber Heard. That’s really what it was,” Safran told Deadline at the time.
“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,” the producer continued. “You have to do what’s right for the film, and that’s really where we landed on it.”
But that was before the trial and the revelations about Heard that happened because of it. Now it appears Heard is in danger of being removed completely, even if her representative denies it.