Amber Heard: ‘Nothing could have prepared me for 2020’

Amber Heard has confessed she was unprepared for the year’s events, which included the Covid-19 pandemic and a courtroom showdown with her ex-husband Johnny Depp.

The Aquaman star hit headlines this year when she appeared as British newspaper The Sun’s star witness in her ex-husband Johnny Depp’s high-profile libel case against the publication, and in November, Judge Justice Nicol ruled that the tabloid’s report on allegations that Depp was violent towards Heard was “substantially true”.

And in an interview with Sky News, she touched on the struggles she has endured in recent months.

“Nothing could have prepared me for 2020, let’s face it. I don’t think I’m alone in saying that. I don’t think anything could have prepared me,” she said.

The actress, who was promoting her new TV series The Stand, in which she plays a survivor of a flu which kills 99 per cent of the population, explained the show forced her to ask questions about being faced with “unbelievable circumstances and incredible adversity”.

Filming on the show finished in March, just before the Covid-19 pandemic took hold, and she agreed the series, which is based on a Stephen King novel, is “timely”, and she was drawn to her character Nadine Cross’ “complexity”.

“I don’t want to play a character that’s easy to understand or whose motivations are transparent, it’s more interesting to play a character who is functioning like many of us are behind several layers of masks that change, depending on what our situation is and who we are dealing with,” she continued.

“That’s part of what I like about the series in general is that it forces the audience to think: ‘What would I do when faced with unbelievable circumstances and incredible adversity and everything being on the line? What would you do? What would you fight for? And then, you know, ‘who would you be?’ I like that this forces you to think about things in that way.

“And I know anyone who’s been through this year can relate – that’s exactly what we have found ourselves asking ourselves a lot.”

Depp has applied to appeal the ruling and is also suing her in the U.S. over a separate Washington Post article written two years ago.