Author of the article:
Bang Showbiz
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Megan Davis “had not watched” any of Amber Heard and Johnny Depp’s defamation trial before she was cast to play the actress in a new movie.
The 33-year-old actress admitted she had very little to base her portrayal of the Aquaman star on when it came to filming Hot Take: The Depp/Heard Trial – which is based on their ongoing controversial legal battle – because she hadn’t seen any of Amber’s movies, or even followed the case closely.
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Speaking on PEOPLE magazine’s Every Day podcast, Megan said: “I had not seen anything she had done. I hadn’t seen All the Boys Love Mandy Lane. I hadn’t seen Aquaman, and I actually had not watched the trial either.”
Megan found the role was riddled with “difficulties” as she had both real-life footage and reimagined scenes to recreate.
She said: “There’s difficulties with both, right? Because (with) the trial, you have the real footage, so you have to nail it, and you hope to nail it. Whereas with the re-enactments, you don’t have the footage so you hope to get their energy right and who they are as people, right?”
Megan was joined on the podcast by Mark Hapka – who portrays the Edward Scissorhands star in the Tubi Original – who revealed his intrigue in the project came from the “the very real human beings” involved in the highly publicized cased.
The 40-year-old actor told host Janine Rubenstein: “I felt sad watching the social media response to the trial because I felt like these are two very real human beings, which is why I was interested in the film when I was first approached about it. Because I think as artists, any form of artists, all you can hope to do is bring understanding and compassion to places where there maybe wasn’t before.”
Amber and Johnny spent several months locked in a legal battle over a 2018 op-ed the 36-year-old actress wrote about being a victim of domestic abuse but in June, the Pirates of the Caribbean actor – who wasn’t named in the article – was awarded over $10 million in damages, while the Danish Girl star received $2 million in a counter suit.
Both stars are appealing the verdicts, which came over a year after the 59-year-old actor lost a libel case in the U.K. after Britain’s The Sun newspaper branded him a “wife beater” and a subsequent appeal.