All The Boys Love Mandy Lane - Amber Heard interview

RISING young star Amber Heard talks about the appeal of hip new horror movie All The Boys Love Mandy Lane and why it’s so different from most teen slasher flicks. She also talks about her forthcoming projects, including films with Seth Rogen and Billy Bob Thornton, the success of her career so far and how she came to be an actress…

Q. I imagine one of the immediate appeals of All The Boys Love Mandy Lane is that it is trying to do something different with the horror genre?
Amber Heard: That’s a big part of the reason I gravitated so much towards the script and committed so much and had so much trust in the project. It’s a first-time director, no one had a name that was a part of the decision making process, and it was low budget but the script spoke for itself and it’s very different. I thought it was a unique character and a unique script – a true one of a kind.

Q. Were you a fan of the horror genre before Mandy Lane?
Amber Heard: Not particularly. I just liked the script.

Q. Did you identify with certain aspects of Mandy Lane’s character and the fact that the boys in the film treat her like a sex object and not much else?
Amber Heard: That’s what’s really great about the film and the character. It plays into all of the expectations that one would have from this character and it mocks you, in a sense, for having expected that and so blindly not anticipating the ending or the reality of things. It’s great because she’s such a strong female character – she always had so much potential from the way she was written and the capacity to be a real person with layers. I found that really unique because there’s not really that many female characters out there. Here, you look at the film and think: “Scream queen!” Or: “Blonde girl!” But in the end it mocks you for thinking like that in a way. And I liked that a lot.

Q. Also, the way that the director uses the camera early on is very clever, especially in the way as he invites the audience to be a voyeur in the way he films your body while walking through high school….
Amber Heard: The opening scene means a lot and it’s a testament to his true genius. If you want to just wrap it up, go to that first scene… the camera in all films takes on a point of view that you as an audience take on, so you see things as if your eyes are the camera. But what’s so brilliant about that scene is that he just sort of presents you with a whole scene where your eyes could go anywhere except that he tells you where to look. He literally takes the camera and does this [gestures towards her chest] to put the audience in the scene brilliantly. So, we in turn, as audience members, see that and become instantly one of the members in the hallway. It gets a really strong message across of how she’s being objectified and how she is being looked at by the people in her class. I’m glad you pointed that scene out because it’s a great moment.

Q. I gather the house you filmed in also has an interesting history?
Amber Heard: I think it was built in the Civil War era of the United States and it’s a very traditional, post-Colonial home. It’s a huge mansion out in the middle of nowhere – which was kind of creepy but on a film set you’re never alone so nothing crazy happened! [Laughs] People ask about it all the time, whether anything strange happened because it’s a horror film but no…

Q. You mean there were no ghostly visions or anything, like some reports have suggested?
Amber Heard: Everyone talked about it being haunted but my opinion on that kind of thing, personally, is that it would have to slap me across the face, literally [for me to believe it], or if something supernatural came and offended me, then maybe I’d believe. But I was never alone – everybody followed you around and there was always someone watching, so I’d have been lucky if I could get away to have something like that happen [laughs], otherwise it would have been recorded. But what I loved about the house was that it had these huge wooden shutters over the windows with holes in them the size of the barrel of a shotgun – not from a shot, but basically so that people could protect their homes during the Civil War. They’d shut these huge wooden shutters over the windows and would still be able to fire through the holes. I thought that was really neat.

Q. And how was it being covered in blood and mud?
Amber Heard: It’s funny because Mandy Lane is one of my first movies. It’s actually my first leading role and I’d never been on a set for more than a week or two – that was how long it took to do my specific roles – and I remember I’d just got to Hollywood and jumped into a lead role like this and was thinking about all the glamour and potential that LA had. But then I got on set and my hair and make-up literally included for a long time being taken out into the middle of a field – because it was low budget too – and having a bucket of blood and mud dumped on top of me for continuity. I remember thinking as I was covering my eyes to have this dumped all over me: “I really didn’t know it would be quite this glamorous!”

Q. You must be delighted with the way your career is going so far. You forthcoming films list is hugely impressive, starting with Never Back Down…
Amber Heard: Well, Never Back Down is directed by Jeff Wadlow and it stars Djimon Hounsou, Cam Gigandet and Sean Faris. It’s sexy and kind of like The Fast & The Furious meets Karate Kid. It’s action packed, real and brilliantly shot. It’s also a neat story [about an underground fight club] and I’m sure it will be very popular. After that, I have a small independent film called Remember The Days.

Q. You also did The Pineapple Express with Seth Rogen?
Amber Heard: That was amazing – and the funniest set I’ve ever been on, of course! And then I did a movie with Gregor Jordan with a bunch of actors I grew up watching – Winona Ryder, Mickey Rourke, Kim Basinger and Billy Bob Thornton. It’s called The Informers [based on the Bret Easton Ellis novel] and that comes out this year as well – so, I’ve made five films this year [laughs].

Q. Seth Rogen thrives on improvising on his films. Was it the same on Pineapple Express and how did you cope with the improv?
Amber Heard: The whole movie, at least my part and every time that I was on set, was based almost solely on improv. I actually don’t think I looked at a script once after I’d read the plot and got the idea of the film and where they wanted to go with it. Those guys are all very trusting to Seth and they’re very, very trusting to him. So, on the set we wouldn’t even bring our lines with us. It was just start here and end up there and go home.

Q. Do you ever get daunted about walking onto a film set with people like Billy Bob Thornton and Mickey Rourke?
Amber Heard: Not at all! It’s nothing really going into it… I don’t really consider it either way. But then leaving a set like that leaves a great impression on you. Every film I work on, every film I’ve walked away from, I learn more and more. I’ve worked with such brilliant people. I’ve been really lucky in my career to always work with really good people.

Q. What’s it like to refer to someone like Billy Bob Thornton or Kim Basinger on a first name basis? I know that [Orange Rising Star winner] Shia LaBeouf found it amazing to be able to refer glibly to Harrison Ford as just Harrison. And that was one of the few things that impressed his dad!
Amber Heard: Right and yes, I do get those feelings and my dad had some interesting things to say about Kim Basinger [laughs]! But I don’t really consider it that way. There’s a certain deadening that happens in this industry that makes it just like working with another co-worker in a sense. But they’re all very talented actors.

Q. When did you know you wanted to pursue a career as an actress?
Amber Heard: I guess when I was in high school. I was in drama and I wanted to do something and my father reminded me of how much I loved drama before I dropped out of high school and he was really, really helpful and inspiring to me to get into the business. Then, I told him: “Actually, I think I can do that and I’m going to leave tomorrow for LA….” I was under 18, so he was like: “What?! I didn’t mean that!” [Laughs] So, I guess I was in high school and I just took off and did it. I haven’t looked back.

Q. Who inspired you?
Amber Heard: I’m very inspired by strong female actresses that run Hollywood and don’t let Hollywood run them, such as Charlize Theron, Natalie Portman and Cate Blanchett. I love Julia Roberts… actresses like that, that just really project strength, talent, beauty – but they don’t let their beauty run their career.