This fall will mark two years since a verdict was announced regarding Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s defamation case after a grueling two months in court. Both actors have been attempting to move forward with their lives, with Heard celebrating her 38th birthday on social media.
Since the trial, she has been less active on social media, but she did post in January to thank fans for their support with the Aquaman sequel. Heard’s latest Instagram post comes as she celebrates turning 38.
Amber Heard celebrated her birthday with an Instagram post
Amber Heard turned 38 on April 22, and she marked the occasion with an Instagram post the following day. Alongside a photo of herself smiling while sipping from a glass, she wrote, “Champagne kind of birthday.”
Heard, who faced defamation charges with Johnny Depp, is now living a quiet life in Madrid, Spain, two years after the highly publicized court battle, feeling she had to leave the U.S. Heard first moved to the Spanish island of Mallorca before situating herself in an upscale neighborhood of Madrid.
In a viral video last summer, Heard answered questions from local reporters on the sidewalk, saying in Spanish, “I love Spain so much.” When they asked if she plans to stay, she replied, “Yes, I hope so. Yes, I love living here.” She returned to the screen in the indie thriller In the Fire, attending the Taormina Film Festival in Sicily in June 2023 to promote it.
Heard’s last Instagram post came January 3, when she shared behind-the-scenes photos from her time making Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. She reprised her role as Mera in the superhero sequel, which hit theaters last December.
“After all this time, Aquaman 2 made its splash (sorry, it’s too easy),” she wrote at the time. “Thank you to all of my fans for the overwhelming support and love in Mera’s AQ return. Thank you so much.”
A brief about Amber Heard’s career
Amber Heard’s earliest acting work included appearances in two music videos, Kenny Chesney’s There Goes My Life and Eisley’s I Wasn’t Prepared, and small supporting roles in the television series Jack & Bobby (2004), The Mountain (2004), and The O.C. (2005).
She made her film debut in a minor role in the sports drama Friday Night Lights (2004), followed by brief supporting roles in films Drop Dead Sexy (2005), North Country (2005), Side FX (2005), Price to Pay (2006), Alpha Dog (2006), and Spin (2007), and a guest-starring spot in an episode of the police procedural crime drama television series Criminal Minds. Heard received her first leading role in the unconventional slasher film All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, which premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival.
Heard gained mainstream recognition in 2008 with supporting roles in the Judd Apatow-produced stoner comedy Pineapple Express and the martial arts drama Never Back Down. She also appeared as part of an ensemble cast in an adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel The Informers (2008).
The following year, Heard starred in The Joneses (2009) opposite David Duchovny and Demi Moore. Outside a brief appearance in the box office hit Zombieland (2009), Heard’s other films during this time were either independent films that received only limited theatrical release – ExTerminators (2009), The River Why (2010), And Soon the Darkness (2010)– or critically panned horror films – The Stepfather (2009), The Ward.
In 2017, Heard appeared as part of an ensemble cast in Lake Bell’s indie comedy I Do… Until I Don’t and joined the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) cast as Mera, a princess of an Atlantean kingdom, in the superhero film Justice League. She reprised the role the following year in Aquaman, which co-starred Jason Momoa and marked Heard’s first major role in a studio film.
In 2019, Heard had supporting roles in the independent dramas Her Smell and Gully. Her only project released in 2020 was The Stand, a miniseries based on Stephen King’s novel which premiered on CBS All Access in December 2020, with the series finale airing in February 2021. In 2021, Heard reprised her role as Mera in the superhero film Zack Snyder’s Justice League, a director’s cut of the 2017 film, for which she had also filmed new scenes.
Heard reprised her Mera role in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023), a sequel to Aquaman. An online petition to remove Heard from the film began following her ex-husband Depp’s loss in his UK libel case and his replacement in the Fantastic Beasts films in 2020.
Heard’s first role after the trial was in the film In the Fire, directed by Conor Allyn. The film premiered at the Taormina Film Fest in June 2023. It was released in October 2023.
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