Amber Heard

Amber Heard
File:800px-Amber Heard (43723454772).jpg Heard at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con
Born	Amber Laura Heard April 22, 1986 (1986-04-22) Austin, Texas, U.S.
Other names	Amber Laura Depp
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2004-2020
Spouse(s)	Johnny Depp (m. 2015; div. 2017)
Partner(s)	Tasya van Ree (2008–2012)

Amber Laura Heard (born April 22, 1986) is an American actress. After a series of small roles in film and television, Heard had her first starring role in the horror film All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006). She first gained mainstream recognition for supporting roles in the action film Never Back Down (2008) and the comedy Pineapple Express (2008). In the following years, she appeared in films such as The Joneses (2009), The Ward (2010), The Rum Diary (2011), Drive Angry (2011), SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs (2013), Magic Mike XXL (2015), and S.W.A.T. (2019).

In 2017, Heard joined the DC Extended Universe to play Atlantean queen Mera in superhero films Justice League (2017), Aquaman (2018), and Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021). In addition to acting, Heard has been a global spokesperson for the cosmetics giant L'Oréal Paris since 2018. She also engages in activism.

Heard was married to actor Johnny Depp from 2015 to 2017. Their divorce drew significant media attention as she alleged that he had been abusive through most of their relationship. He then sued her for defamation in 2019 after Heard wrote an op-ed discussing being a public victim of domestic violence. He also sued the publishers of The Sun in a related libel suit in England. In 2020, the High Court of Justice of England and Wales ruled that Depp had lost his libel case and that the majority of Heard's allegations had been proven to a civil standard.

Early life

Heard was born in Austin, Texas, to Patricia Paige (née Parsons), an internet researcher, and David Clinton Heard, who owned a small construction company. She has a younger sister named Whitney. The family lived outside Austin. Heard's father broke horses in his freetime, and she grew up riding horses, hunting, and fishing with him. She also participated in beauty pageants, although as an adult she has stated that she could no longer "support the objectification". When Heard was 16, her best friend died in a car crash. Heard, who was raised Catholic, subsequently declared herself an atheist. Around the same time, she began reading books by writers such as Ayn Rand, Ray Bradbury, and George Orwell, and began questioning society around her. At the age of 17, she no longer felt comfortable in Texas and dropped out of her Catholic high school to move to New York City. She eventually earned a diploma through a home-study course. In NYC, she supported herself through modeling, but soon moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.

Career

2003—2007: Early roles

Heard's earliest acting work included appearances in two music videos, Kenny Chesney's "There Goes My Life" and Eisley's "I Wasn't Prepared", and small supporting roles in the television series Jack & Bobby (2004), The Mountain (2004), and The O.C. (2005). She made her film debut in a minor role in the sports drama Friday Night Lights (2004), followed by brief supporting roles in films such as Drop Dead Sexy (2005), North Country (2005), Side FX (2005), Price to Pay (2006), You Are Here (2006), Alpha Dog (2006), and Spin (2007), and guest starring spot in an episode of the police procedural Criminal Minds. Heard received her first leading role in the unconventional slasher film All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, which premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival, but was not released in Europe until 2008 and in the US until 2013 due to distribution problems.

Heard's first starring role was playing the main character's love interest in The CW's drama Hidden Palms, which the network wanted to replace summer reruns of other series aimed for younger audiences. The series premiered in the United States on May 30, 2007 to mixed to negative reviews. It was also unpopular with audiences, leading the CW to air only eight of the planned 12 episodes before canceling it. The same year, Heard also appeared in the short movie Day 73 with Sarah, the critically panned drama Remember the Daze, and an episode of the Showtime series Californication.

2008—2016: Mainstream recognition

Heard at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival

Heard gained moderate mainstream recognition in 2008 with supporting roles in the Judd Apatow-produced stoner comedy Pineapple Express and the martial arts drama Never Back Down, both of which were box office successes. She also appeared as part of an ensemble cast in an adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel The Informers (2008), but the film was a critical failure. The following year, Heard starred in The Joneses (2009) opposite David Duchovny and Demi Moore; Variety wrote that Heard "steals the show" from Moore. Outside a brief appearance in the box office hit Zombieland (2009), Heard's other films during this time were either independent films that received only limited theatrical release —ExTerminators (2009), The River Why (2010), And Soon the Darkness (2010)— or critically panned horror films —The Stepfather (2009), The Ward.

Amber Heard at the premiere of John Carpenter's The Ward, 2010 Toronto International Film Festival

Heard's first film release in 2011 was Drive Angry, a supernatural action thriller in which she was paired with Nicolas Cage. The film received mainly bad reviews and underperformed commercially, but film critic Roger Ebert wrote that she "does everything that can possibly be done" with her character, a waitress who becomes entangled in an undead man's mission to save his daughter from a cult. In early 2011, Heard also appeared on the British television program Top Gear. Heard next starred in NBC's The Playboy Club, a crime drama series about the original Playboy Club in 1960s Chicago. After poor reviews and ratings as well as protests from both feminists and conservative groups, the series was canceled after only three episodes had aired. Heard's third role of 2011 was as the love interest of the main character, played by Johnny Depp, in the Hunter S. Thompson adaptation The Rum Diary (2011). The film was not a commercial success, and received mixed reviews, with Heard's part considered underdeveloped. In 2011, Heard also appeared in an advertisement campaign for the fashion brand Guess.

Heard next starred in the military action film SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs (2013), the exploitation film Machete Kills (2013) and the satire Syrup (2013). None were critically successful, but SOCOM was a commercial success while Machete Kills and Syrup were not. The year also saw the US limited release of All the Boys Mandy Lane. Although the film's reviews were overall mixed to negative, Heard's performance was called her "most definitive to date" by the Los Angeles Times and "psychologically interesting" by The Washington Post. In 2014, Heard appeared in a supporting role in the commercially successful action-thriller 3 Days to Kill.

In 2015, Heard had a prominent supporting role in the comedy-drama Magic Mike XXL, playing the love interest of the film's protagonist, Channing Tatum. Like its predecessor, the film was a large box office success. Heard also had a small supporting role in Tom Hooper's period drama The Danish Girl (2015), and a starring role opposite James Franco and Ed Harris in the independent crime thriller The Adderall Diaries (2015). Although reviews for the latter were generally negative, Indiewire stated that although Heard was "miscast", she "displays much potential and has succeeded in a bid to be taken more seriously." Her fourth role in 2015 was opposite Christopher Walken in the television film One More Time, which aired on Starz. For her role as a struggling singer-songwriter, she took singing lessons and learned to play piano and guitar. The Los Angeles Times called her performance "superb" and The Film Stage stated that Heard did an "admirable job".

In addition to her other roles in 2015, Heard played the female lead in London Fields, an adaptation of Martin Amis' novel about a clairvoyant who knows she will be murdered. After its press premiere at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, Heard's performance received highly negative reviews, and she later stated that "it was one of the most difficult movies to film and it has proven to continue to be difficult...I can't say I did her [the character] justice." Shortly after the initial screening, the film was pulled from release due to disagreements between its director and producers, and due to litigation was not released until 2018. Heard was nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress for the film.

2017–present: DC Extended Universe and upcoming projects

Heard discussing Aquaman at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con International

In 2017, Heard appeared as part of an ensemble cast in Lake Bell's indie comedy I Do... Until I Don't and joined the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) cast as Mera, Aquaman's Atlantean queen, in the superhero film Justice League. She reprised the role the following year in Aquaman (2018), which co-starred Jason Momoa, Nicole Kidman and Willem Dafoe and marked Heard's first major role in a studio film. She has stated that one of the reasons attracting her to the part was Mera being "a strong, independent, self-possessed superhero in her own right", who rejects being called Aquawoman instead of by her own name. Aquaman became the fifth most profitable release of 2018, and the most profitable DCEU installment up to that point. The same year, Heard was appointed global ambassador for cosmetics giant L'Oréal Paris.

In 2019, Heard played a supporting role in the independent drama Her Smell, and a police officer in S.W.A.T. with Shemar Moore and Shia LaBeouf. Her only project released in 2020 was the post-apocalyptic miniseries The Stand, based on Stephen King's novel of the same name. She starred as Nadine Cross, a school teacher who is among the few survivors of an apocalyptic plague. It co-starred James Marsden, Odessa Young, Alexander Skarsgård and Henry Zaga, and premiered on CBS All Access in December 2020, with the series finale airing in February 2021. In 2021, Heard reprised her role as Mera in the superhero film Zack Snyder's Justice League, a director's cut of the 2017 film. She will next appear in the sequel to Aquaman, which is set to begin filming in summer 2021.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	Friday Night Lights	Maria
2005	Side FX	Shay
	Drop Dead Sexy	Candy
	North Country	Young Josey Aimes
2006	Price to Pay	Trish
	Alpha Dog	Alma
	All the Boys Love Mandy Lane	Mandy Lane
2007	Spin	Amber
	Day 73 with Sarah	Mary	Short film
	Remember the Daze	Julia Ford
2008	Never Back Down	Baja Miller
	The Informers	Christie
	Pineapple Express	Angie Anderson
2009	ExTerminators	Nikki
	The Joneses	Jenn Jones
	Zombieland	406
	The Stepfather	Kelly Porter
2010	And Soon the Darkness	Stephanie	Also co-producer
	The River Why	Eddy
	The Ward	Kristen
2011	Drive Angry	Piper
	The Rum Diary	Chenault
2013	Syrup	Six	Also executive producer
	SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs
	Machete Kills	Miss San Antonio
2014	3 Days to Kill	Agent Vivi Delay
2015	The Adderall Diaries	Lana Edmond
	One More Time	Jude
	Magic Mike XXL	Zoe
	The Danish Girl	Ulla Paulson
2017	I Do... Until I Don't	Fanny
	Justice League	Mera
2018	Her Smell	Zelda E. Zekiel
	London Fields	Nicola Six	Filmed in 2013
	Aquaman	Mera
2019	S.W.A.T.
2021	Zack Snyder's Justice League	Mera

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	Jack & Bobby	Liz	Episode: "Pilot"
	The Mountain	Riley	Episode: "A Piece of the Rock"
2005	The O.C.	Salesgirl	Episode: "Mallpisode"
2006	Criminal Minds	Lila Archer	Episode: "Somebody's Watching"
2007	Californication	Amber	Episode: "California Son"
	Hidden Palms	Greta Matthews	8 episodes
2010	The Cleveland Show	Herself (voice)	Episode: "Beer Walk!"
2011	Top Gear	Herself	Episode: "Episode #16.5"
	The Playboy Club	Bunny Maureen	7 episodes
2015	Overhaulin'	Herself	Episode: "In Too Depp"
	The Prince	Serena	Television film
2020–2021	The Stand	Nadine Cross	7 episodes

Music videos

Year	Title	Artist
2003	"There Goes My Life"	Kenny Chesney
2005	"I Wasn't Prepared" (Version 1)	Eisley

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result
2008	Young Hollywood Awards	Breakthrough of the Year	Herself	Won
2009	Detroit Film Critics Society Awards	Best Ensemble	Zombieland	Nominated
2010	Scream Awards	Best Ensemble	Zombieland	Won
2010	Dallas International Film Festival	Dallas Star Award	Herself	Won
2011	Hollywood Film Festival	Spotlight Award	The Rum Diary	Won
2014	Texas Film Hall of Fame	Inductee	Herself	Won
2019	Golden Raspberry Awards	Worst Actress	London Fields	Nominated
2019	Saturn Award	Best Supporting Actress	Aquaman	Nominated
2019	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Sci-Fi/Fantasy Movie Actress	Aquaman	Nominated