Dream comes true for Austin native Amber Heard

[MickBeth]

Amber Heard was well on her way to becoming a successful model. But she wanted something more out of life.

“There's no real talent involved in modeling,” says Heard, who was born and raised in Austin. “Acting has substance.”

For proof that she chose wisely, we direct your attention to “Hidden Palms,” the new teen drama that premieres on the CW at 7 tonight. In it, Heard does far more than just strike a few poses.

As Greta, the show's leading lady, she's smart, sassy, funny, opinionated, mercurial.

“Greta is complicated,” Heard says. “She's like I was when I was a teenager. It's why I relate to her.”

It's also why, as a 21-year-old woman, Heard doesn't mind channeling a high school girl for TV.

“If it's good and something I believe in,” she says, “I don't have any hang-ups about playing someone who's a lot younger than I am.”

“Hidden Palms” is the creation of writer/producer Kevin Williamson. Given his past work, which includes “Dawson's Creek” and the “Scream” movies, you know going in that “Hidden Palms” will be smarter, more challenging, more literate than most entertainment aimed at teenage audiences.

The show is part “Dawson's Creek” and part “The O.C.” — with maybe a dash of “Scream” thrown in just to make things unsettling.

“Hidden Palms” focuses on Johnny Miller (played by Taylor Handley), a 16-year-old who's the new kid in opulent Palm Springs. Troubled by his father's shocking suicide, Johnny is fresh out of rehab and now living in the house where another teenage boy happens to have taken his own life.

Greta, Heard's character, was the dead boy's girlfriend. She and Johnny are now on their way toward becoming an item (although she runs hot and cold, because she is hiding a dark secret about her ex's death).

“It's a smart show about smart people in smart situations,” Heard says. “I think that's refreshing. With a lot of TV, everything gets dumbed down.”

Heard makes a haunting first impression. When we first see Greta, she's traipsing across a golf course, almost ghostlike, at night under the sprinklers.

Which prompts her to mention her only quibble with the role: “I'm soaking wet in every episode! All I wanted to do after a while was wear dry clothes!”

Heard says she had a “typical Texas upbringing” in the northeast Austin area. Although she moved to California at 17 to pursue an acting career, she still considers herself a dyed-in-the-wool Texan. (And it's worth noting that her cell phone still has a 512 Austin area code.)

Heard says she always wanted to be an actor.

“But for a while, I was falling down the slippery slope of modeling,” she said. “By the time I was 16, I was being asked to come to New York to model. I dropped out of school to model, but I was talked out of it by my father and by my agent at the time.”

Her acting career began in earnest with the 2004 movie “Friday Night Lights,” and the experience had a profound effect on her.

“When I was on the set, just doing day-playing work, I remember thinking, ‘This is what I want to do forever,'.” she said. “Knowing that with such certainty at 17 was just life-altering.”

Since “Friday Night Lights,” she has co-starred in such films as “Alpha Dog” and “North Country.” She also plays the title character in the forthcoming horror flick “All the Boys Love Mandy Lane.”

“I would just love to work in films for the rest of my life,” Heard says. “I don't care about famous or about being anything like that. All I care about is living my life, being able to do what I love, working project to project, city to city, in films I believe in. That's the only way to live.”

The dream seems to be coming true.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/entertai....2283d98b.html