Amber Heard almost lost her contract as Aquaman’s love interest, Mera. But according to a studio executive, it has nothing to do with any drama between her and ex-husband Johnny Depp, as Heard has claimed.
Instead, it turned out that Heard and co-star Jason Momoa “didn’t really have a lot of chemistry together,” according to Walter Hamada, president of Warner Bros. Pictures, who oversaw all of the studio’s superhero and supervillain films.
“The size of the role in the film that she had was determined in the early development of the script, which would be in 2018,” he alleged. “The character’s involvement in the story was sort of what it was from the beginning.”
“From the early stages of the development of the script, the movie was built around the character of Arthur [Momoa] and the character of Orm [Patrick Wilson],” Hamada further stated.
On Monday, Heard’s legal team brought in entertainment industry consultant Kathryn Arnold as a witness, who said Heard was paid $2 million for the sequel – an amount negotiated around the time of the film. The first “Aquaman” came out in 2018.
However, the consultant said the actress would be able to renegotiate for up to $6 million, if Depp and his attorney Adam Waldman smeared her by calling her abuse accusations. she is a “hoax”.
Arnold claims Heard’s earning power and negotiating power have been significantly diminished by those claims, which began circulating in 2020.
But Hamada further stressed on Tuesday that the actress’s compensation was not affected by Depp and Waldman’s claims.
Meanwhile, since testing began, more than 4 million Depp fans have flocked to sign a petition asking DC Films to remove Heard from “Aquaman 2” altogether.
The highly anticipated film will be released in March next year. The first “Aquaman” film – released in 2018 – was a box office success, grossing over $1 billion globally.
Depp is suing Heard for defamation on the 2018 Washington Post that the actress wrote in, in which she said she was a victim of sexual violence.
She did not specifically name Depp in the article, but it was written after Heard filed a restraining order against her current ex-husband in 2016 over allegations of abuse.
Depp is seeking $50 million in damages. Heard filed a $100 million lawsuit.
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