Amber Heard: I've Felt ‘Culture’s Wrath’ Towards Women Who Speak Out
TAKING A STAND
The actress says she lost roles and jobs after coming out against domestic violence two years ago.
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Actress Amber Heard says she faced retaliation in the entertainment industry after speaking out against domestic violence—costing her both roles and jobs. In a Tuesday Washington Post op-ed, Heard wrote that she had felt the “full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out” after she publicly advocated against domestic violence two years ago. “Friends and advisers told me I would never again work as an actress—that I would be blacklisted. A movie I was attached to recast my role. I had just shot a two-year campaign as the face of a global fashion brand, and the company dropped me,” she wrote. “Questions arose as to whether I would be able to keep my role of Mera in the movies Justice League and Aquaman.” Heard went on to say she had a “rare vantage point [of] how institutions protect men accused of abuse” and how powerful men in today’s culture are still “buoyed by social, economic and cultural power.” The actress implored readers to “work together” and “demand changes to laws and rules and social norms—and to right the imbalances that have shaped our lives.”
