Amber Heard Was Almost Fired From ‘Aquaman 2,’ Her Agent Confirms

Johnny Depp is suing Amber Heard for impacting his career, but now people from Heard’s camp are revealing how her prospects were damaged as well. On Thursday, Heard’s talent agent Jessica Kovacevic testified in court that Heard was nearly recast in Aquaman 2 because of her tumultuous divorce from Depp. This confirmed a longstanding rumor about the case and lots of fan speculation as well.

Heard and Depp both made abuse allegations against each other, among other claims when their short-lived marriage ended in 2016. Both of their careers were rocked by the split, and Kovacevic has shared more details than ever about the fallout on Heard’s end. She gave a pre-recorded deposition under oath and said that Warner Bros. had considered recasting the role of Mera in Aquaman 2 due to the public fiasco of Depp and Heard’s divorce and various lawsuits. According to a report by Entertainment Weekly, Kovacevic said that Warner Bros. blamed the recasting on a “lack of chemistry” between Heard and Jason Momoa, but Kovacevic believed it had more to do with the bad publicity around Depp’s lawsuits.

So far, Warner Bros. has not responded publicly to Kovacevic’s testimony. Ultimately, Heard kept her role in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which wrapped filming in January of 2022 and is scheduled to premiere on March 17, 2023. However, according to Kovacevic her role was “pared down” to minimize the bad press she could bring to the film.

This matches Heard’s own testimony on Monday, where she said that she had to “fight really hard” to keep her biggest jobs as an actress amid Depp’s “smear campaign.” She claimed that her role in Justice League and Aquaman were both on the line at one point, and claimed that Depp has employed a “sophisticated PR machine” to wage war on her image.

“I had to fight really hard to keep my career after I got my [restraining order against Depp],” Heard said. “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 the option to [star in] Aquaman. I had to fight really hard to stay in Justice League because that was the time of the divorce.”

Depp’s lawsuit rests on his claim that he lost his jobs in the Fantastic Beasts franchise, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and others due to Heard’s 2018 op-ed about domestic violence. However, even if Heard’s article did impact those studio decisions, it will not meet the legal definition of defamation unless Depp’s legal team can convince the jury that Heard’s article was false. The lawsuit continues through this week, after which the jury will begin deliberations.