A spokesperson for Amber Heard has denied reports that the actress has been cut from Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom following the outcome of her defamation trial against ex-husband Johnny Depp.
Heard was set to reprise her role as Aquaman’s love interest Mera in the upcoming sequel, but on Tuesday (June 14) Just Jared reported that the role has been recast.
“Warner Bros. decided to recast Amber Heard’s role after screentesting the movie. They are going to be doing reshoots with Jason Momoa and Nicole Kidman,” an anonymous “insider” told the site.
In response to the speculation, a spokesperson for Heard told Variety: “The rumour mill continues as it has from day one – inaccurate, insensitive and slightly insane.”
Just Jared later updated its story, claiming sources close to the production had told them that Heard had “not been completely cut from the film” and that she “still has a small role”.
During the highly-publicised defamation trial, Heard told the court that she had to fight to keep her role in the upcoming DC film, and that her part had been significantly reduced by a new version of the script. She claimed this to be a direct result of the negativity surrounding her during the trial.
DC Films chief Walter Hamada later confirmed that the studio had briefly considered recasting Heard’s character – not because of the allegations against her, but because of an apparent lack of chemistry between herself and lead star Jason Momoa.
Appearing on NBC’s Dateline in an interview set to be aired on Friday (June 17), Heard claimed that the representation of the trial on social media had been unfair.
“I don’t care what one thinks about me or what judgments you want to make about what happened in the privacy of my own home, in my marriage, behind closed doors,” she said. “I don’t presume the average person should know those things. And so I don’t take it personally.
“But even somebody who is sure I’m deserving of all this hate and vitriol, even if you think that I’m lying, you still couldn’t look me in the eye and tell me that you think on social media there’s been a fair representation. You cannot tell me that you think that this has been fair.”
On June 1, Heard was ordered to pay Depp $10 million (£8 million) in compensatory damages after the court ruled that she had defamed her ex-husband with an op-ed article for The Washington Post, in which she said she had been a victim of domestic abuse.
Depp was ordered to pay Heard $2 million (£1.7 million), following her claim that she had been defamed by Depp’s lawyers.
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