Amber Heard
Amber Heard is an American actress known for her role as Queen Mera in the DC Comics films "Justice League" (2017) and "Aquaman" (2018). Born on April 22, 1986, in Austin, Texas, she began her career in the entertainment industry after moving to Los Angeles, where she initially pursued modeling before transitioning to acting. Heard gained recognition for her performance in the Oscar-nominated film "North Country" and solidified her status with roles in popular films such as "Pineapple Express" and "The Rum Diary."
Her personal life gained significant media attention following her tumultuous marriage and subsequent divorce from actor Johnny Depp, during which she accused him of domestic abuse. This led to a highly publicized legal battle that included a defamation trial, where both actors made allegations against each other. Despite the controversies, Heard has remained an advocate for domestic and sexual violence awareness and LGBTQ rights, serving as a Human Rights Champion at the United Nations and working with various charitable organizations. As of 2023, she continues to act and has relocated to Spain with her daughter, Oonagh.
Subject Terms
Amber Heard
Actor
- Born: April 22, 1986
- Place of Birth: Austin, Texas
Significance: American film and television actor Amber Heard is best known for her portrayal of Queen Mera in the DC Comics superhero films Justice League (2017) and Aquaman (2018). Following a highly publicized divorce from actor Johnny Depp, Heard became an outspoken activist for domestic and sexual violence awareness.
Background
Amber Laura Heard was born on April 22, 1986, in Austin, Texas. Her mother, Patricia, worked as an internet researcher for the state, and her father, David, was a construction contractor. Heard’s younger sister Whitney acted in a single film, Homo Erectus (2007), before concentrating on a career in photography.
Heard spent her childhood fishing, camping, and hunting with her father. He also taught her to drive pickup trucks and ride horses. Heard attended Catholic school and worked part-time as a lifeguard and as a cleaner at a local modeling agency. Her goal was to save enough money to pay for headshots for her modeling portfolio.
Even at a young age, Heard felt the call to activism. She worked at a soup kitchen in her hometown, volunteering in the mornings before school. Heard also stepped in to appeal a school board decision to keep a same-sex couple from attending the prom together.
At seventeen, Heard dropped out of high school and moved from the family home in Texas to New York to pursue a modeling career. Heard soon decided that she was more interested in acting. After obtaining a high school diploma through home study, Heard moved to Los Angeles despite her parents’ objections. Soon after her arrival, she landed a few minor roles in television and film.
From Small Town to Big Screen
In 2004, Heard made her debut as Liz in the pilot for the television series Jack & Bobby. That same year, she was cast in her first feature film. Heard played the small role of Maria in the popular high school football movie Friday Night Lights in 2004. In 2005, she appeared in a single episode of the popular series The OC and in the comedy film Drop Dead Sexy. It was not until her role as teenage Josey in the Oscar-nominated film North Country that Hollywood began to take notice. North Country featured Charlize Theron as adult Josey, who filed a landmark sexual harassment case while working as a miner. Despite the lack of screen time, Heard carried a significant portion of the storyline and played a believable version of Theron’s character.
Following a series of minor screen roles, Heard was cast in her first lead role in the 2007 television series Hidden Palms. The show was canceled after eight episodes, but it further helped launch Heard’s film career. Her first film lead came in 2008, when Heard was cast as the love interest in the teen mixed martial arts movie Never Back Down. Her role as Seth Rogan’s teenage girlfriend in the 2008 hit Pineapple Express made Heard a star in her own right.
Heard continued to land lead parts as the ingenue, a stereotype she would acknowledge in a later interview with W magazine. In 2011, she shed the role of the pretty, high school girl to play a more complex part opposite Johnny Depp, twenty-three years her senior, in The Rum Diary. The two shared an instant attraction but would not begin dating publicly until a year later when Depp parted ways with longtime partner, Vanessa Paradis, and Heard ended a relationship with photographer Tasya van Ree.
Heard and Depp were married in a small private wedding in 2015. Although their relationship would ultimately eclipse Heard’s career, in 2015 she found herself with a steady stream of leading roles. She joined the cast of the sequel to the hit film Magic Mike as Channing Tatum’s love interest in Magic Mike XXL. In the same year, she also appeared in The Adderall Diaries, The Danish Girl, and One More Time.
In 2016, Heard filed for both a divorce and a restraining order against Depp, whom she accused of physical abuse. She received a $7 million settlement and reportedly donated it to charity. While the divorce became final in 2017, Heard continued to speak publicly about the domestic abuse she allegedly endured during her marriage. At the same time, Heard made headlines for her role as Queen Mera in the blockbuster DC Comics Justice League franchise. As Queen Mera, she would play a more significant role in the 2018 hit Aquaman.
Heard had a lead role as Nadine Cross in the popular Stephen King miniseries The Stand in 2020–21. She also appeared, again as Queen Mera, in the four-hour epic Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021).
In 2022, Heard's legal troubles with Depp made headlines once more as they appeared in court during a high-profile trial. Arguing that Heard was guilty of defamation for having published an accusatory Washington Post opinion piece about surviving domestic abuse in 2018, Depp had filed a lawsuit against Heard, who then countersued on the basis that Depp's legal team had committed defamation against her. While the jury ultimately found that Heard had indeed made defamatory statements in her op-ed, it additionally found that a statement made by one of Depp's lawyers had also been defamatory. As a result, Depp received just over $10 million and Heard was granted $2 million. It was subsequently reported that not long after Heard filed an appeal of the verdict against her, Depp filed an appeal as well.
In the aftermath of her very public divorce and the defamation trial, Heard appeared as Grace Burnham in the 2023 film In the Fire. That same year, she once again reprised her role as Mera for a small part in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Having moved to Spain with her young daughter, Oonagh, Heard planned to continue acting.
Impact
As a popular Hollywood actor, Amber Heard was cast in dozens of films and television series, including several of the wildly popular DC Comics superheroes movies. Personally, Heard paved the way for women to speak out about domestic physical and sexual abuse, even as she received anonymous death threats for doing so. Additionally, she worked as an activist for LGBTQ rights, was a Human Rights Champion at the United Nations Human Rights Office, and was named an ambassador at the American Civil Liberties Union. Heard also supported Amnesty International, the Syrian American Medical Society, and Planned Parenthood.
Personal Life
Amber Heard came out publicly as bisexual in 2010. Following her well-publicized divorce and the ensuing legal battles, Heard reportedly dated cinematographer Bianca Butti for a time.
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