Blonde bombshell, Amber Heard, has sent shock waves throughout Hollywood ever since she moved there at the tender age of 17.
While her high-profile relationship to Johnny Depp has been the center of controversy for years, it’s time to get to know the real Amber Heard.
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Here are 10+ random facts fans didn’t know.
1. She was a tomboy growing up:
Since her father had three daughters, he chose to treat Amber as a son.
“I was very girly on the inside,” she told Marie Claire . “But my dad was not raising a girly girl. He was raising someone who could keep up with him.”
2. She lied to get her first job:
When she was 13, she lied about her age so that she could work as a lifeguard and an office cleaner at a modeling agency.
She did so in order to pay for her headshots. While she modeled for Guess jeans, she didn’t like it.
3. She dropped out of high school:
She did so to become an actress, but this worried her parents.
“I traveled a bunch without telling them I had moved out, because it was easier to do it in spurts. By the time I was 17, I was subletting a room in L.A.”
4. She’s a huge advocate for gay rights:
The actress came out publically in 2010 when she was dating photographer Tasya van Ree.
“So much needs to change,” she told Marie Claire . “No matter what people want to label me as, I still fight for equality, and I think popular opinion will catch up.”
She continued:
“I think it already has, actually. I think our generation sees themselves as part of a larger global community, and therefore, it’s harder to enact basic tribalistic prejudices based on ignorance and hate.”
5. She owns guns:
This is a hobby that she picked up from her father, who she once called “a six-foot-two, handlebar-mustached, Wrangler-wearing, hat-sporting cowboy” to Teen Vogue .
He gave her a .357 Magnum and a pearl-handled .38.
6. She and Johnny Depp shared the big screen two times together:
The former husband and wife first met on the set of The Rum Diary in 2011.
“It was like seeing an old-time movie star like Lauren Bacall,” Depp said, of meeting Heard on set. Then, he had a brief cameo in her film, London Fields .
7. She has a love/hate relationship with acting:
She told Marie Claire that, despite this, she was “determined to do something and to see something and to use my voice.”
Also, to “experience as much of the world” as she could, she said.
She continued by saying:
“When I was in Texas, people would say, ‘Don’t do this, it’s crazy.’ I didn’t have anything to lose. I didn’t care.”
She also said that she became an actress to get out of Texas.
8. She doesn’t like seeing herself onscreen:
She told Interview magazine that she felt “gut-wrenching sensation of embarrassment” the first time she saw herself on screen.
“Some people might get used to it, but not me,” she said.
“I think you just develop better mechanisms to defend yourself against having to try to get used to it.”
She continued:
“When you’re commodified, you have to develop mechanisms to protect your ego and a sense of self that isn’t being commodified.”
9. She believes that women in her industry are judged by their covers:
“If I were a man, I’d be allowed to play roles that were compelling and that drove an audience to have an emotional response,” she told Marie Claire .
She lowkey has a point there!
“I would have gotten that opportunity, regardless of the packaging I come in,” she continued.
“I would have been allowed to play characters that were more nuanced.”
Her most complex role to date was in The Danish Girl .
10. She has rejected religion:
While she was raised Catholic, she declared herself an atheist after her best friend died in a car crash when she was 16.
This didn’t mesh well with where she lived in Texas, which she called “a very monotone presentation of society.”
11. She’s currently dating filmmaker Bianca Butti:
They first sparked romance rumors in 2019 when they were spotted kissing in Palm Springs.
Sadly, Bianca is currently battling breast cancer for the second time. Amber has been by her side during this.
The pair even socially distanced together at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
Their adorable relationship follows Heard’s previous one to Tesla founder, Elon Tusk.
Amber and Elon split in the summer of 2017, citing timing conflicts.
12. She knows sign language:
She learned it since most of her closest friends growing up were deaf.
She’s even worked with the Starkey Hearing Foundation to hand out hearing aids. “For me, and how connected I am to my friends in the deaf community, it’s a perfect thing.”
13. She’s humble despite her millions:
Like these celebs, she hasn’t let her riches change her.
“You respect what it takes to earn it [money],” she told Marie Claire , emphasizing the importance of hard work. “
“And it also gives you a certain resilience, because it minimizes this false notion that that’s what matters. I know that to not be true, and I know I’m fine without it,” she continued.
“That’s why maybe I’m so independent. I never expect anyone to give me anything—the notion of someone supporting me would be absurd to me.”
