They met each other while filming
“The Rum Diary”: The crackling between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp was so intense
Amber Heard and Johnny Depp met in 2009 while filming The Rum Diary. The strip is based on the novel of the same name by US writer Hunter S. Thompson. Depp plays the role of journalist Paul Kemp, who takes a job in Puerto Rico. There he falls in love with a woman named Chenault, portrayed by Amber Heard. Depp and Heard became closer in front of the camera, but both were privately involved in other ways at the time.
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Amber Heard and Johnny Depp met in 2009 while filming The Rum Diary. The audience remembers the crackling and a kiss between the two actors.
Amber Heard and Johnny Depp met in 2009 while filming The Rum Diary. The film is based on the novel of the same name by US writer Hunter S. Thompson. Johnny Depp plays the role of journalist Paul Kemp, who takes a job in Puerto Rico. There he falls in love with a woman named Chenault, portrayed by Amber Heard. He finds himself conflicted when he has to do PR for Chenault’s fiancé Sanderson and other investors to help them build a hotel on a pristine island. The public is to be convinced of the project through manipulation.
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard on The Rum Diary
When they first meet in the film, Chenault is naked: journalist Kemp is riding a pedal boat on the water in the dark. Suddenly a woman appears in front of him. “Sorry, I thought there was no one on it and it would be abandoned,” she says. “I thought you were a mermaid,” he says.
In a short conversation, it quickly becomes clear that she is taken. And she doesn’t want to tell him her name or anything else about herself. But already in this first scene she turns his head. Kemp aka Depp then asks if he can at least know her zodiac sign, because he often has to think up horoscopes for the newspaper. “Maybe I’m a fish,” she says, and swims away. And it becomes clear: It’s probably not your zodiac sign.
“Did that have to happen now? Just when I was doing so well on my own,” he says, while continuing to float around in the pedal boat. Already in this scene you can feel a special chemistry between the two actors. Chenault won’t appear very often in the film, but when she does, it’s decidedly feminine, almost lascivious.
Later in the film, he watches Chenault and her fiancé having sex on a yacht. Then Kemp borrows a car from Sanderson, a fire red convertible. In it he is supposed to pick up Chenault and bring him to Sanderson. Before that, he is supposed to help her choose a dress for the carnival. She tries on different dresses, twists so hard her skirt flies up. Then there is a long, meaningful exchange of looks between the two.
There is also a lot of tension during the ride in the fiery red convertible: She lights a cigarette for him and strokes his leg, he looks at her breasts. When the road suddenly ends, they have to slam on the brakes. Then they almost kiss. But only almost. The viewers have to wait almost until the end of the film for the right kiss, but they are not disappointed: It is perhaps one of the most beautiful kisses on film. Amber Heard told the British newspaper “The Independent“: “It didn’t feel like a normal scene. It felt real.” That’s how she spoke about the moment on the witness stand in court.
And she said that after filming wrapped, Johnny Depp sent her a dress she wore in the film with a note, as well as expensive scrapbooks and guitars as gifts. During a press tour for the film, she visited Depp in his hotel room, where they kissed again. “We sat on the couch and talked. Had red wine. It felt like there was electricity in the room. I got up and when I left the room he grabbed both sides of my face like he did on set did to that scene and kissed me and I kissed him back,” she testified.
And she added: “We fell in love. We traveled and talked about this film we were in together. We spent the night together in my hotel room and the rest of the press tour.”
Depp and Heard got closer in front of the camera and probably couldn’t forget the film kiss either. Privately, both were otherwise involved at this time. Depp with singer and model Vanessa Paradis and Heard with photographer Tasya van Ree. Then everything happened very quickly: They both left their respective partners and became a couple in 2012, married in February 2015, separated in May 2016 and officially divorced in January 2017.
Additional source: “The Independent“