Photo: EW
On Thursday, Amber Heard’s agent told the court that Warner Bros. is recasting her role in Aquaman because of a “lack of chemistry” with co-actor Jason Momoa.
Jessica Kovacevic laid testimony regarding Heard’s career before and after her break-up with ex-husband Johnny Depp, expressing her belief that Warner Bros intended to replace Heard as Mera due to bad press surrounding their split.
But Kovacevic testified that the entertainment giant pointed out Heard’s lack of chemistry with Momoa as the grounds for their decision to recast her.
Warner Bros. refused to comment on the matter.
While the entertainment giant did not directly point out Heard’s break-up with Depp as the grounds behind her possible recasting, Kovacevic said that, in her opinion, they didn’t “want to hire someone who had bad press,” further stating, “No one wants that association.”
In her testimony on Monday, Heard said she had to “fight really hard” to remain in her roles in 2017’s Justice League and the first Aquaman installment in the middle of Depp’s supposed “smear campaign” against her.
An actress testified that the “sophisticated PR machine” behind Depp made a scheme to call her a liar in the press, which prompted her dismissal from acting jobs and beauty sponsorships.
“I had to fight really hard to keep my career after I got my [restraining order against Depp],” Heard testified. “I lost opportunities. I got dropped from jobs and campaigns. I fought to keep my job and the biggest movie opportunity I had to date [with] Justice League with option to [star in] Aquaman. I had to fight really hard to stay in Justice League because that was the time of the divorce.”
Heard said that Warner Bros. “didn’t want to include me” in Aquaman 2. When queried whether she was “actively scheduling timing for filming” for Aquaman 2 prior to Depp’s supposed smear campaign, Heard said yes.
When asked about her inclusion following Depp’s team calling her a liar in the press, she said no, “the communications stopped at that point.”
Heard further stated, “I was given a script and 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 spoiler aways, two characters fighting with one another, and they basically took a bunch out of my role. They just removed a bunch out.”
The actress’s contract is worth $2 million, but she only appears in 10 minutes of the film.
When queried whether she has been able to look for work lately, Heard stated, “I have done small independent films. I shot a film in Guatemala. It’s a small independent, meaning it doesn’t have distribution or anything; it’s a lower budget film that I had been attached to for many years called Into the Fire.”
She stated that she was compensated $65,000 for the part. Considering the blockbuster hit of Aquaman, Kovacevic testified that Heard should have been given more endorsements and job opportunities; however, she was denied that.
