Amber Heard says there is a "tonne of pressure" on movies like 'Aquaman 2' to have blockbuster success.
The 37-year-old actress - who is embarking on a fresh chapter in her career after her highly-public defamation trial against ex-husband Johnny Depp last year - admits that while she is "honoured" to have played a role in the DC world, she relished getting to work on a "passion project" in the indie film 'In The Fire'.
Speaking to Deadline, Amber - who will return as Mera alongside Jason Momoa's titular character in 'Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom' - said: "There’s a tonne of pressure on these big franchise movies, with millions and millions of dollars at stake, and compromises are part of trying to make it the most successful thing it can be. Then on the other end of the spectrum is a small indie film like 'In The Fire', a work of art and work of love, with nowhere near the same resources, and so there are compromises there. The best luck you can have as an actor is to be able to balance both."
Amber loved getting "dirty" with her co-stars and the director to "breathe life" into 'In The Fire'.
She plays Grace, a doctor from New York, who "travels to a remote plantation in the 1890s to care for a disturbed boy who seems to have inexplicable abilities."
She added: "'Aquaman', that franchise and the machinery behind it, I’m very honoured to be a part of that. And then there are these small passion projects like 'In The Fire', where I’m proud to have gotten to know the filmmaker and the cast, and we got dirty together, to breathe life into this story. There’s something cool about that, and I think success is an actor who is able to have both those things."
Amber insists her career won't be tarnished by the trials and tribulations of her personal life.
She told the publication: “I think I’ve earned respect for that to be its own thing.
“That’s substantial enough. What I have been through, what I’ve lived through, doesn’t make my career at all. And it’s certainly not gonna stop my career. So let’s talk about this movie.”
The former couple was embroiled in a six-week trial over a piece Amber wrote in 2018 about being a victim of domestic violence, with the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' actor ultimately winning over $10 million in damages after winning all three of his defamation claims while she was awarded $2 million after winning one of her three countersuit claims.