Amber Heard Says Her New Film’s Risqué Scenes Were Filmed Without Her Consent
Amber Heard is fighting for her rights in court again, but this time, it has nothing to do with ex-husband Johnny Depp. The domestic violence activist is going head to head over nude scenes shot for her latest film, London Fields, which also incidentally stars Depp and Cara Delevingne, with the film’s producer, Christopher Hanley.
@garyswilkinson London Fields had an all star cast including Cara Delevingne, so how did it become a disaster movie? https://t.co/EVkXLXajlS
— Gary Wilkinson (@garyswilkinson) November 23, 2016
The actress responded in court to a 2016 lawsuit he brought against her for breach of contract and tortious interference with some allegations of her own, counter-suing for the same complaints and seeking an injunction to prohibit the film’s impending release.
According to Heard’s cross-complaint, she had agreed to do the film under the condition that certain sexual scenes requiring nudity be restricted, the terms of which were agreed to by Hanley. She says that the producer then attempted to get around those terms by “[filming] secretly several additional nude and sex scenes with a body double for Heard” after she had wrapped filming for the evening for inclusion in a ‘Producer’s Cut.’ As her complaint explained, “The body double footage included a pornographic sex scene that Heard would never have agreed to do herself [which] was designed and intended to leave anyone who saw the images with the distinct impression that it was Heard.”
What’s more, the former Friday Night Lights star says her producer also requested continuity shots (which can include various states of undress during wardrobe changes) of her during the film’s production stages, which her countersuit claims would have had no business relevance to Hanley post-filming.
Hanley, for his part, says that the 30-year-old’s rep had initially agreed to the inclusion of nudity on her behalf, with the option to approve certain scenes following the final cut and prior to public viewing. Instead, he says she conspired with the film’s director, Mathew Cullen (who is also suing the production company for fraud) to “secretly [make] unauthorized changes to certain of the screenplay’s more provocative scenes.”
With so much legal tit for tat, we may never know exactly how things went so awry, but we DO know that the concept of faking a woman’s likeness in a compromising position without her consent is not one that sits well with us… at all. As Heard reportedly told a judge on Thursday, “This… shines a spotlight on the dark underbelly of Hollywood.”
Are you outraged by Amber’s claims? Tell us over @BritandCo.
(h/t E!; photos via Mike Coppola + Randy Shropshire/Getty)
