jan 5, 2021 - Amber Heard THE STAND I’m good at getting people to believe in the villainous woman character

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FROM THE HINDU:

Amber Heard: ‘I’m good at getting people to believe in the villainous woman character’

The ‘Aquaman’ star talks about starring in the mini-series adaptation of Stephen King’s 1978 pandemic thriller ‘The Stand’, being a fan of co-star Alexander Skarsgård, and how she inhabits her characters

By GAUTAM SUNDER

It would be fair to say that Amber Heard had a tumultuous 2020. The actor’s highly-publicised divorce with Johnny Depp became somewhat of a global phenomenon, and the fallout from the event was such that her recurring role of Mera in DC’s Aquaman 2 is now in question.

However, the 34-year-old is a picture of calm as she sits down to talk to us about the now: her part in the latest adaptation of Stephen King’s 1978 pandemic thriller The Stand . The mini-series, developed by Josh Boone, follows the remnant of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world wrecked by a pandemic (!), who are locked in a struggle between good and evil, either siding with Mother Abigail (Whoopi Goldberg) or Randall Flag the Dark Man (Alexander Skarsgård).

Though populated by a plethora of interlinking storylines, King’s novel has been feted for its immense attention towards charting the complex arcs of every fictional character in the saga— such as Amber Heard’s Nadine Cross.

A schoolteacher during the time of the flu outbreak in the novel, Nadine’s fascinating journey follows her mission to meet a man who frequents her dreams —often in a sexually-charged manner — who is later revealed to be the terrifying Randall Flag himself. Along the way, she meets a 12-year-boy named Joe and a musician Larry, who complicate her visions and ultimate destination further.

Speaking on a Zoom call in a group interview, Heard says that the premiere of a show like this, bang in the middle of the COVID-19 outbreak, makes for rather “interesting timing.”

A pandemic-themed show during a pandemic?

“You know, on set, we used to joke around by saying, ‘Hey, it’s day four of the pandemic,’ and now.. wow. Our story is very different from what’s going on now, of course, but you do understand the similarities. It is based on a global pandemic that wipes out most of the population of Earth and leaves with it the best and the worst of humanity, and exemplifies them. And in an ultimate battle for the best survival of our species, the show details how we don’t just survive, but how we thrive and come together to do so,” she explains.

Answering a question on Nadine being a seducer in The Stand, Heard says, “Thank you to King and his genius for creating characters with real backstories that are complex, and making them interesting and nuanced. During the course of the show, I’ve tried to do Nadine justice and bring out her humanity. A seducer can also be vulnerable, right? The seduction and vulnerability are not mutually exclusive. I don’t feel as a woman, I have to apologise for one in order to justify the other or vice versa. I think Nadine is no more of a seducer than she is a survivor; she’s using the tools that she has to survive in a world that’s treated her a certain way.”

On ‘Aquaman’ and Queen Mera

The actor is currently also in preparation for her most popular role: that of Queen Mera from the Aquaman franchise. How does she move on from a dark fantasy series to a superhero film?

“Both Nadina and Mera are totally different. What I seem to be really good at is getting an audience to believe in the villainous woman character! (laughs). Actually in Aquaman , it was a bit of a departure for me to play someone who’s not using her womanly ways to bring evil to the world. But Nadine, on the other hand, is a character coming with a lot of psychological baggage. There’s a lot of preparation for frankly, how people behave when they have been groomed. Owning her journey was understanding people who come out of cults or those who have committed horrendous crimes. I talked to and read a lot of interviews and biographies with people who had been either kidnapped, brainwashed or otherwise indoctrinated into a cult, and brought on to participate in crimes.”

Swooning over Skarsgård

Some of Heard’s most important scenes — ones that influence the outcome of the series — are with Alexander Skarsgård, who plays the main villain in The Stand . Playing the literal devil, Heard says, came naturally for the Swedish actor.

[Long Article continued via the links below]


SOURCE:
US VA Court Documents:
Virginia Trial Transcript Day 18 pp5278

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