Amber Heard has English, Irish, Scottish, German, and Welsh ancestry.
Heard appeared in the Academy Award-nominated film, North Country (2005), in which she played Charlize Theron‘s character in flashbacks. Her other early film credits include: Syrup (2013), Drive Angry (2011) 3D, The Joneses (2009), Never Back Down (2008), Alpha Dog (2006) and Friday Night Lights (2004). On television, Heard starred on The CW drama, Hidden Palms (2007), and had guest starring roles on Showtime’s Californication (2007) and CBS’s Criminal Minds (2005).
In 2009, Heard starred in the box office hit, Zombieland (2009), opposite Woody Harrelson, Bill Murray and Jesse Eisenberg. She also starred in the suspense thriller, The Stepfather (2009), with Sela Ward, Dylan Walsh and Penn Badgley. In 2008, she garnered attention for her role in the comedic hit, Pineapple Express (2008), with Seth Rogen and James Franco. Heard received a 2008 Young Hollywood Award for her breakthrough performance in “Pineapple Express”.
She appeared in The Rum Diary (2011), opposite Johnny Depp, and John Carpenter‘s The Ward (2010), which premiered at the 2010 Toronto Film Festival. She also starred in the independent film, And Soon the Darkness (2010), in which she additionally served as a co-producer.
She said once, ” I liked the juxtaposition–I liked that she looks like this archetype of a leading lady, this 1950s housewife-in-the-making, the kind of iconic symbol of a woman at that time, this commodity or something that represents the elite status or rather, what the elite status strives to obtain in life or what they value in life and she kind of looks like that, superficially and represents all these things very well on the surface but yet is not that underneath–she’s flawed and kind of vulnerable and fiercely independent and rebellious and I relate to a lot of those qualities and like that she’s not what she looks like.” Heard also shared with her fans that , ”
I am constantly struggling to show people that there is more to me than my appearance. You do have to try and overcome those hurdles. Female actresses need to be given the chance to be more than how they look. There’s two categories for women in Hollywood; you’re either sexy and that’s it, or you’re not and because of that you often get given better opportunities. You can’t be sexy and get as many good roles, fact. It’s so frustrating to see women compartmentalized in those ways, but it’s not going to change until the amount of female filmmakers and producers get to anywhere near being half. So many female characters and stories are written by men. It’s a flawed system.”