Johnny Depp’s team rebuttal witnesses phase started this Tuesday with a video deposition of Walter Hamada, Warner Bros.’s executive and president of DC Films. As part of Amber Heard’s counter defamation suit, the Aquaman actress stated that her ex-husband’s accusations and “smear campaign” against her (which included Depp’s lawyer’s declarations against her) had damaged her image, and thus her reduced participation and payment on the DC sequel.
Walter Hamada, testified that Warner had doubts about recasting Heard on the role of Mera for the sequel because they didn’t see much chemistry with Jason Momoa in the first movie. He even explained that they had to fabricate that chemistry in post-production to make the movie work: “a good editor and filmmaker can pick the right takes, can pick the right moments.”
Still, he said that creating that chemistry for the film proved to be more difficult with Momoa and Heard. Hamada explained that the company was toying with the idea of finding another actress with more “natural chemistry” with Jason Momoa, but at the end of the day, they decided to keep Amber on the sequel.
As for the money, Amber Heard’s agent, Jessica Kovacevic, had testified days before that on Amber Heard’s contract for the first Aquaman it was stated that she would be paid 1 million dollars for the sequel but that after Depp’s allegations and the negative publicity they allegedly caused on the actress, her role and payment were reduced.
On that matter, Walter Hamada said that the company had never considered paying Heard more for the sequel than what she received on the first part. He even declared that her payment nor participation in the film hadn’t been affected by Johnny Depp’s or Adam Waldman’s (his former attorney) allegations. On the contrary, according to Waldman, the size of her role was determined in the early development of the script back in 2018.
Waldman explained that from the very beginning it was established that the movie wasn’t going to be about Aquaman and his love interest Mera, but more of a buddy story regarding the superhero: “from the early stages of development of the script, the movie was built around the character of Arthur and the character of Orm. Arthur is Jason Momoa and Orm is Patrick Wilson, so they were always the two co-leads of the movie… The movie was always pitched as a buddy comedy between Jason Momoa and Patrick Wilson.”
