Amber Heard claimed in court on Monday that her role in DC sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was cut down amid mutual abuse accusations between her and ex-husband Johnny Depp.
At the $50 million defamation trial—which Depp pursued after Heard alleged she was a domestic abuse victim in a Washington Post op-ed—Heard said she “fought really hard to stay in the movie” but Warner Bros. “didn’t want to include me in the film” as returning character Mera. As a result, she was left with a “very pared down version.”
“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,” Heard said, per Variety. “They just removed a bunch out.”
Heard said—despite the short screen time—she earned $2 million for the role. While she had been “actively scheduling timing for filming,” once Depp’s team called her a liar, she says things slowed down.
Heard’s comments about having her role trimmed from that of the once-crucial character in the first film come after 3 million people signed a petition to have her fired from the upcoming film entirely.
“I don’t think we’re ever going to react to, honestly, pure fan pressure,” the film’s producer Peter Safran previously 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.”
Also on Tuesday, Heard denied accusations that she left feces in Depp’s bed as a practical joke, and claims it came from his own dog. She also claimed her ex struck her over a sex scene he thought she was in, in which she was replaced by a body double, as they watched the movie London Fields together.
“At another moment, he punched me across the jaw. At one point he either pushed or threw…I went flying into this old church furniture,” Heard said. “I later thought I had a concussion.”
