She Will Be Heard

After a turbulent Hollywood marriage − and toxic divorce −Amber Heard has emerged stronger than ever. Emma Brockes talks to the actress and activist about survival, standing up for what’s right and her latest role as a comic-book superhero.

Amber Heard comes bounding into the hotel bar in New York in a plain white tee and jeans looking, at 32, impossibly young and slight. The actress, who is best known for her roles in Justice League (2017) and The Danish Girl (2015), lives in LA but spends so much time in New York, she really should rent an apartment here, she says. ‘Or buy one,’ I suggest, to which she dryly replies, ‘Yes, but I spend all my money on lawsuits.’

It is the kind of remark that makes Heard so likeable, with an ability to hold at amused distance the drama of her last few years. This included her turbulent two-year marriage and very public divorce from Johnny Depp, against whom she filed and later dropped a restraining order, and her equally public relationship with Elon Musk. Heard has a joyful energy that expresses itself in long, unwinding sentences she calls ‘babbling’ and that, to her amazement, occasionally end in a point.

Sample: ‘I like anything that makes you feel,’ she says, when the waiter brings hor d’oeuvres. ‘Like spicy or pickles. But I hate olives! I want to like them, because I’m very bothered by the idea I’m missing out, and I have tried so many times to redirect my natural aversion to olives, even though I’m an actress and need another food to love like I need another hole in my ear.’ There follows a further two minutes on olives, at the end of which she says sheepishly, ‘Thanks for understanding.’