Amber Heard remains committed to her art.
A year after the end of her highly-publicized Virginia defamation trial with ex-husband Johnny Depp, which led her to stepping back from the spotlight for a brief time, the actress reemerged in support of her upcoming movie, In the Fire, and shared how she didn't want adversity to define her career.
"You know, I just want to make movies and be appreciated, as an actress," she told Deadline in an interview published June 26. "I don't want to have to be crucified to be appreciated as one."
However, Heard said that the focus may not always center on her projects.
"I'm in control for the most part of what comes out of my mouth," she said. "What I'm not in control is how my pride in this project and all we put into this film can be surrounded by clips of other stuff. That's a big thing I had to learn, that I'm not in control of stories other people create around me. That's something that probably I'll appreciate as a blessing further down the line."
As she continues to navigate her return to the public eye, Heard prefers not to have "stones thrown at me so much." As she noted to Deadline, "So let's get the elephant out of the room then, and just let me say that. I am an actress. I'm here to support a movie. And that's not something I can be sued for."
"I'm not telling you I have this amazing film career, but what I have is something that I've made, myself, and it has given me a lot to be able to contribute," said Heard, who has been acting since she was 16-years-old. "The odds of that in this industry are really improbably but somehow, here I am. 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."
In fact, Heard returned to the red carpet on June 23 for the premiere of In the Fire at the Taormina Film Festival. "Thank you for such an incredibly warm reception at the Taormina Film festival for my latest movie In the Fire," she wrote on Instagram June 30. "It was an unforgettable weekend."
Heard's latest outing comes after yearslong legal battles with Depp, which began in 2020 in the U.K. At the time, Heard testified in Depp's libel case against The Sun that he allegedly verbally and physically abused her, which he denied. Depp lost the case and his appeal was denied.
In April 2022, Depp sued Heard over a 2018 op-ed she wrote for the Washington Post, in which, without naming her ex, the Aquaman star referred to herself as a "public figure representing domestic abuse." The lawsuit went to trial in Virginia, with a jury awarding $10 million to Depp in compensatory damages after ruling that Heard had defamed the Pirates of the Caribbean actor. Heard, who countersued Depp, was awarded $2 million in compensatory damages.
The two settled the case in December.
"Now I finally have an opportunity to emancipate myself from something I attempted to leave over six years ago and on terms I can agree to," Heard, who filed for divorce from Depp in 2016, wrote in a message to Instagram at the time. "I have made no admission. This is not an act of concession. There are no restrictions or gags with respect to my voice moving forward."