Amber Heard Says ‘Aquaman 2’ Role Reduced Due to Depp Allegations

Amber Heard says the rumors are true: Her Aquaman 2 role was reduced in wake of her ongoing legal war with ex-husband Johnny Depp and their mutual abuse allegations.

The actress testified at her defamation trial Monday that she “fought really hard to stay in the movie” but that “they didn’t want to include me in the film” and only shot a “very pared-down version” of her part as Mera.

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“I was given a script, 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,” Heard said. “They basically took a bunch out of my role. They just removed a bunch.”

The actress added that she “couldn’t renegotiate” her contract. Heard said she received $2 million for the role, double her payout from the first film, and that it marked the last Aquaman movie under her contract. Mera was the female lead in the first Aquaman film in 2018.

The remarks come as a petition to remove Heard from Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has recently passed 4 million signatures on Change.org.

Heard’s quotes stand in contrast to what the film’s producer Peter Safran said last July when asked about the possibility of Heard’s role being removed.

“I don’t think we’re ever going to react to, honestly, pure fan pressure,” Safran told Deadline‘s Hero Nation podcast. “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.”

Safran’s comments came just after principal photography had reportedly begun, however. The film shot through January 2022, leaving plenty of time for changes to have been made along the way.

Depp has sued Heard for defamation over a December 2018 op-ed published in The Washington Post that didn’t name Depp but referenced alleged abuse that corresponded with their time together. She called herself in the column a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” Depp sued for $50 million over the piece, alleging that he’s being boycotted by Hollywood over what he’s called a hoax orchestrated by his ex-wife, who countersued for $100 million.

Warner Bros. did not respond to a request for comment on the Heard reduced role allegation.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is set for release on March 17, 2023.

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