By Anne Brodie Jul 30, 2010, 14:25 GMT
There’s a twist and a half in The Joneses, an edgy new comedy starring Demi Moore and David Duchovny. The Joneses have moved in next door. They are beautiful, rich, and enviably kitted out. The neighbors want to be them, have what they have, and borrow a little of their perfection.
Amber Heard provides laughs with The Joneses and love for Johnny Depp in The Rum Diaries. © Albert L. Ortega / PR Photos
However, illicit sex, commercialism, and power struggles crack the carefully groomed Jones façade. Twenty three year old Amber Heard, a rising star in Hollywood’s youth brigade, plays the sex obsessed fashionista daughter who beds men twice her age.
Heard told Monsters & Critics that she immediately related to Jenn Jones.
“The first act of the film you start to notice that something is really off. My character is desperately seeking affection. She realizes she's just looking to understand love. She’s a vulnerable character that’s cheeky and tough on the outside. There were some layers there and I thought it was a real character that made sense not just to me but to a lot of girls.”
Heard has ways of dealing with life’s ups and downs and she approached the role armed with things that inspire her.
“My religion is philosophers, poets, artists, and thinkers, especially Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. I don’t need anything else. I don’t need to aim for a thing or a place or an old set of rules or systems, I don’t need to be told constantly I am going to be punished or rewarded that I don’t need anything else. This life is the best one I could imagine having and I’m going to treat it like it’s the only one I have.”
Heard stands out in the monotony of Hollywood’s pretty young things thanks to a strong sense of self.
“I think there is a healthy amount of alienation that I've always felt from the settings I was in. I was raised in a religious environment and in a very strict religious academy my whole life. I was kicked out. I was fervently against religious principals from as early as I could think on. I challenged the system.”
Heard challenges the status quo as a seeker and a glamorous starlet making her way in an industry that worships the latter but not the former. She says one doesn’t negate the other.
“It’s easy to be in a movie and go out with your classmates and be at a Hollywood premiere and go to the clubs and do the drugs and go to work the next morning. It is easy to party and show your personal life out like it’s your dirty laundry and mistake the attention for affection.”
Heard’s self confidence lead directly to her biggest role to date. She will play Johnny Depp’s lover in The Rum Diary, a role she aggressively pursued with phone calls, letters, and emails. That will take her a giant step closer to the spotlight. As long as she’s packing The Fountainhead, things should be fine.
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