Zendaya and Ana de Armas, protagonists of the trial of Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard

The names of Zendaya, Ana de Armas, Gal Gadot, Chris Pine and Jason Momoa came to the fore by surprise during the trial for defamation and ill-treatment between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.

kathryn arnolda film industry consultant, testified called by Heard’s legal team and compared the career of these stars with that of the actress, stating that Heard could be enjoying the same professional success as the aforementioned quintet were it not for the “smear campaign” orchestrated by Depp and her environment against her.

“When you look at the time period that Waldman’s statements were released, and you look at what was going on with Ms. Heard’s career before the statement and what happened after the statement, it’s very clear to make that correlation.” , Arnold testified, referring to Depp’s lawyer, Adam Waldman, who accused Heard of lying in his abuse allegations in an interview with the Daily Mail in 2020.

“It would have been very reasonable to believe that his career would have been on an upward trajectory like these other actors were it not for the false accusations.Arnold continued. “Instead,” he told the court, “Heard’s world has been silent in terms of opportunity.” In all, Arnold estimates that the actress suffered $50 million in losses. because of Waldman’s citation (which, coincidentally, is the same amount the actor demands for defamation).

In reply, Depp’s legal team attempted to disprove these claims by claiming that Arnold was comparing “apples to oranges” by relating Heard’s professional career to that of established stars at the time such as Momoa, Pine, Gadot and Zendayawho already had major roles in successful franchises or higher-profile careers than Heard’s.

Arnold called Heard’s role in ‘Aquaman’ “the birth of a star”, to which Depp’s team replied that Mera, Heard’s character, was a supporting role, the protagonist’s love interest played by Momoa

Heard had previously testified that “had to work very hard“to get the role of Mera in the first place, and that his presence in the upcoming sequel has been drastically reduced because of the smear campaign of Depp and his team in the press.

“I missed opportunities,” Heard said. “I got fired from jobs and campaigns. I fought to keep my job and the biggest movie opportunity I’ve had to date on ‘Justice League’ and ‘Aquaman.’ I had to fight really hard to stay on ‘Justice League’ because that was the moment of the divorce.”

He also stated that Warner did not want to include her in ‘Aquaman 2’, in which she will supposedly appear less than 10 minutes despite having received the full salary of 2 million dollars.

Last week, Heard’s representative Jessica Kovacevic testified that Warner Bros. wanted to replace Heard as Mera sometime. Although Kovacevic told the court that he personally believed the studio wanted to replace Heard due to bad press, he said the studio justified the desire to change by blaming Heard’s lack of chemistry with Momoa.