feb 19, 2014 - VANITY FAIR Texas Couldn’t Hold Her Amber Heard SPOTLIGHT

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Amber Heard, 27, is not just beautiful; she’s well read, consuming on average a book a week. “Reading keeps me sane,” she says. “Growing up, it was my escape, my alternative; it provided both rebellion and peace.” The older of two girls, she knew early on that if she was going to pursue a career as an actress she had to get out of Texas. “When I was 16, it became clear that I wasn’t going to fit in the machinery that was being provided for me.” Heard moved first to New York but quickly continued on to Los Angeles, where she was immediately cast on television and in film, with parts in Pineapple Express, Zombieland, and The Rum Diary (with Johnny Depp, her fiancé). This month she stars in director McG’s latest action thriller, 3 Days to Kill, scripted by Luc Besson and Adi Hasak and co-starring Kevin Costner. She plays an international spy/assassin, and so had the opportunity to show her skill as a marksman. “Anytime I can shoot the gun instead of throw the bouquet, it is exciting for me,” she says, adding, “My dad is your typical old-school Texan. He loves to hunt. Six days out of the week, we ate what he killed. He took me to the shooting range from the time I could hold a gun, and I did target practice almost my whole life.” Later this year she will be seen in a screen adaptation of Martin Amis’s novel London Fields. “I play Nicola, the central character, our protagonist, and she’s also the antagonist—the hero and the villain. I like the dichotomy and the humanity of her. She doesn’t fit in a standardized, archetypal mold.” Neither do you, Amber.

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