Amber Heard Is Now Being Paid To Speak About Domestic Abuse
Amber Heard is now being paid a lot of money to speak about domestic violence.
This article is more than 2 years old
Amber Heard has a new gig, but it isn’t your standard Hollywood casting role and might not be something she ever intended to speak about publicly. But her recent high profile and rather disturbing run through the media because of publicized marital issues have landed Heard a keynote speaker job. For a price, Amber Heard will be speaking about, among other things, domestic abuse issues.
The Harry Walker Agency, touting itself as the “world’s leading speakers bureau” has hired Amber Heard describing her as an actress, activist, and humanitarian. They tout her acting resume of course, but also her various initiatives including work supporting women’s rights and speaking out against all forms of domestic violence and abuse. But having Heard show up and talk to you or your organization isn’t going to come cheap. The agency is reporting a starting fee of $30,000 for the actress to give a speech.
Amber Heard isn’t the only big-name celebrity speaker in the Harry Walker registry. They have a ton of superstar talent with names like President Barack Obama, President Bill Clinton, and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon among the global names. But there are plenty of folks in the acting world as well with Tina Fey, Steve Martin, Amy Poehler and Kevin Hart as some of their featured celebrities. Amber Heard joins a massive group with some of the world’s biggest names.
This new role for Amber Heard comes on the heels of a tumultuous summer and fall for the actress. The grounds for her background on the subject stem in part from her relationship and subsequent high-profile divorce from actor Johnny Depp. In June, Heard and Depp went to court in London to argue the latter’s libel and defamation case against the British tabloid The Sun. That case pitted Depp against the paper after The Sun had described Depp as a “wife-beater” in his marriage with Heard.
The case went to court and Amber Heard was called to testify on The Sun’s behalf. Because Depp claimed libel, the publishers were forced to prove their wording correct. This led to a number of disturbing allegations about Depp in his relationship with Heard. They included, but weren’t limited to, counts of physical and mental abuse along with heavy alcohol and drug use. It painted a very ugly picture of the two’s short-lived marriage. The court eventually ruled in The Sun’s favor, but not before the ugly details of Heard’s suffering at the hands of abuse had emerged. Depp was, in the end, proven to be the “wife-beater” they originally claimed.
The fallout from the court case and allegations have had polar opposite effects on Amber Heard and Johnny Depp in the Hollywood community. The latter quickly lost his role in the Pirates of the Carribean reboot and was also removed as Gellert Grindelwald in the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them franchise. He has spent the fall in damage control on his reputation and continues to struggle landing roles. With another court case on the horizon, this one against The Washington Post for a similar allegation, this story won’t move out of the public eye for some time.
Meanwhile, Amber Heard’s trajectory is at worst unchanged and at best on the continual rise. She’s starring as Nadine Cross in CBS All Access’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand. That’s set to hit the platform this Friday, December 17th. The early reviews are mixed for the limited-run series, though it does look like an ambitious take on the dystopian novel.
And of course, Amber Heard remains entrenched in the DC Cinematic Universe as Queen Mera in the Aquaman franchise. She’s set to have a role in the upcoming HBOMax event Zack Snyder’s The Justice League and Aquaman 2 has been announced as well. There’s even talk of expanding her role or even getting her own solo movie in the future.
Heard using her abusive relationship with Johnny Depp as a way to educate and help others is, of course, admirable. It can’t be easy talking about such things especially considering the nature of some of the allegations. As I said, many of them were truly disturbing. But she appears to be using those experiences to help others avoid them. And that’s a commendable venture, even if it means writing a considerable check for the efforts.
