Not Even Amber Heard Deserves Cancellation
Depp v. Heard revealed her for a monster. That doesn’t mean we should unperson her.
The spectacle of Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard came to a close on June 1 with a jury awarding Depp a total of $8.35 million in damages for defamation. For those who watched the trial in its entirety--as I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit I did--this is undoubtedly a just verdict. Heard failed to present any substantive evidence for her claims of abuse. Depp, however, provided more than enough evidence to paint Heard as both liar and abuser, including multiple recordings of deranged audio in which she dares Johnny to, "tell the world [that he is a victim of abuse]" and cackles maniacally.
In the wake of these revelations that Heard is no victim, and almost certainly chopped off Depp’s finger, it comes as no surprise that calls for her cancellation have swept across the internet. A petition to remove her character from the upcoming Aquaman 2 has garnered over four million signatures. Whether or not Warner Bros. has buckled to this pressure or doubled down remains unclear.
The popular support for Johnny Depp has certainly made Heard toxic to large corporations. Film is a business of star power and the studio is worried about the bottom line.
But is it right to remove her from Aquaman 2, over a trial about Johnny Depp?
It is true that Heard has already been paid her two million dollars for her work on the film. It’s also true that this cancellation is for actions--monstrous actions, it must be said: defamation, physical and verbal abuse, and staging an enormous hoax to ruin a man's life and career--rather than mere speech, as for so many others. She is no Gina Carano. In this way her extirpation from Aquaman is no real cancellation.
Yet the movie has been made. Heard has shot her scenes. The fact remains that she is in the film, and however terrible we might think her to be as a person, Depp v. Heard had nothing to do with Aquaman 2.
Make no mistake: the vindictive impulse behind the desire to remove Heard from the Aquaman franchise is just the same as that which underlies all cancellation attempts. A ‘bad’ person must be punished extrajudicially for their wrongdoings. For her transgressions, a price must be paid.
But a price will be paid, to the tune of eight million dollars. That is Heard’s punishment as decided democratically by a jury of her peers. For the rest of us who dislike her, we can skip her movies. We can ignore her (as we did before this trial began). What purpose is there in having her plucked from an extant film, except as an act of revenge? Why should we want to rob those who don’t care, who still like her acting, of the ability to see her in a film? Need we go beyond the market to end her career, too? Where does this end?
Cancel Culture is wrong no matter who it comes for. It’s a fate no one deserves--not even a villainess like Amber Heard.