Featured Image Credit: Alamy/Warner Bros
Topics: Amber Heard, Celebrity, Film and TV, Aquaman
Jess Hardiman
Topics: Amber Heard, Celebrity, Film and TV, Aquaman
Amber Heard’s agent has revealed the actor was very nearly recast for Aquaman 2.
In a pre-recorded deposition, Jessica Kovacevic spoke about Heard’s career both before and after her highly-publicised break-up from Johnny Depp, saying Warner Bros wanted to replace the star as Mera in Aquaman 2.
Kovacevic, Heard’s talent agent at William Morris Endeavor (WME), said Heard’s career was rising after the first Aquaman film was released, and that she had tried to renegotiate a rise for the sequel.
However, she claims that Heard was very nearly recast.
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According to Kovacevic, the studio cited a ‘lack of chemistry’ between Heard and co-star Jason Momoa as the reason it was considering recasting her.
However, she believes Warner Bros had actually wanted to replace Heard amid the negative press she was receiving due to her split with Depp.
Claiming Heard was set to earn $2 million for her role in the second movie, Kovacevic said Warner Bros decided to reduce her role.
While the studio never listed the problems within Heard’s personal life as the issue, Kovacevic claimed bosses didn’t ‘want to hire someone who had bad press’.
“No one wants that association,” she said.
Heard remains in the forthcoming sequel as Mera, but the star previously testified that the role was ‘pared-down’ significantly, claiming she had been given multiple scripts and that later versions removed scenes with her character, including action sequences.
Heard said earlier this week in court: "I fought really hard to stay in the movie. They didn’t want to include me in the film."
When asked about if she had been included in the second film, Heard explained she would feature but in 'a very pared-down version of that role'.
She added: "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 spoilers away, two characters fighting with one another.
"They basically took a bunch out of my role. They just removed a bunch."
Heard said Warner Bros ‘didn’t want to include’ her in the sequel, saying she also ‘lost opportunities’ after filing a restraining order against Depp.
She said: “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."
UNILAD has reached out to Warner Bros for comment.