Amber Heard: Fighter's Sweetheart

[MickBeth]

Gorgeous, blonde actress Amber Heard impressed in the big screen version of Friday Night Lights, as a young Charlize Theron in North Country and she appeared alongside Justin Timberlake in Alpha Dog. Amber has a twisted horror flick coming out called All the Boys Love Mandy Lane and, this week, stars in Never Back Down as the unhappy high school girlfriend of a cocky fighter until she perks up on meeting new guy in town Sean Faris.

In our Beverly Hills interview, we found Amber to be amazingly candid and honest about her opinions on high school, what it's like to hide your intelligence and rely on looks to get a guy and how reading helped her escape as a teen. The actress looked very Hollywood glam in her champagne-colored, Nicole Miller pencil skirt and a silky, beige top embellished with beading. Amber's pulled-back updo made her look like a sleek, retro Hitchcock blonde. Despite looking gorgeous, she was honest enough to share that, hey, she got no sleep the night before!

TeenHollywood: How are you?

Amber: I'm good but I'm working off of no sleep so bear with me. I filmed all night and got off at nine this morning.

TeenHollywood: What are you filming?

Amber: I'm filming a movie called The Stepfather directed by Nelson McCormick. I literally filmed until nine this morning. I'm saying 'thank goodness for the hair and make-up team' [laughs].

TeenHollywood: There is some pretty awesome martial arts fight action in this film. Were you a bit disappointed that you didn't get to kick any butt or learn any fight moves?

Amber: To be honest, after working with all these boys for months on end in Orlando, Florida, yeah, you really wanted to take some aggression out and kicking butt was a very polite way of putting it.

TeenHollywood: Did they tease you or was it just too much of a 'boys' club'?

Amber: It was such a boys' club. I was the girl amongst seven boys who spent literally half of their days exercising and the other half pretending to fight. What else could be wrong with that picture? It was exhausting but fabulous of course.

TeenHollywood: What was the atmosphere like on set between the fight scenes? Did some of the guys go in and out of character or stay in character?

Amber: Cam Gigandet [who plays her early boyfriend/bad guy] is a phenomenal actor actually and I really appreciated his ability to never break character. It's not that he was walking around the whole time this complete jerk to everybody but he stayed so focused. I have such admiration for a true artist that's not distracted by everything that's going on around them. He was very particular and very quiet and calculating and his work shows it.

TeenHollywood: What was your own high school life like?

Amber: I have an interesting, I guess, school life. I didn't go.

TeenHollywood: That's a good school life.

Amber: Yeah. It's the best one. I have to recommend it [laughs]. No, I'm kidding! I was raised in Austin, Texas and my parents put me through Catholic school my whole life and look at me now, mom and dad! Then I went to a private Catholic academy, a prep school. It was co-ed. I guess, when I was sixteen, I said 'I'm gonna go be an actress in Hollywood' and I came out here when I was 17-years-old and the rest is history, the rest you can look up.

TeenHollywood: Catholic schools can be pretty tough but they must have some good qualities?

Amber: I think it's the education. I don't think there are many people who will argue with you about the quality of the education but, other than that, I think it's a very dangerous thing. School in America in general is conforming enough. We have a very, very strong tendency to fall into that conformity, very easily because it's the easiest path. I think it's dangerous to put a young girl in a Catholic school where they teach you to conform and dress the same and it effects your personal life after you leave that school. They're telling you how to live your life, morality; what to believe, what not to believe and that is scary. It's literally telling you 'don't think for yourself'.

TeenHollywood: How difficult was it for you to break those chains?

Amber: I'm very lucky. I've always been a big fan of reading and books. I think the minute you pick up a book about world history or religious history; the minute you start to learn about other societies, other cultures, other religions and the history of the ones that have brought our world to what it is today, I think it's very easy to escape. But, not for most people because it's easy to just turn on the TV and watch 'American Idol'.

TeenHollywood: Yeah, true. We hear that when you came in and tried out for the part in Never Back Down, they changed their idea of how the character should be played. What did you think of your character?

Amber: I play Baja Miller in the movie and it's a very important role because she serves as a mirror to society; to all those young girls that either you knew or you were. I believe that it's really important to address that. Art should and does imitate life. If we do it in a truthful manner, you'll walk away with a message. I read a fairly normal high school girl character and [I brought] my own life history into it as an actor. I came into this role and changed it quite a bit and made it very truthful. We are that girl or we knew that girl. So many young girls were taught at such a young age how to make things easier on yourself and it generally comes down to 'shut up and smile'. It's detrimental. That's why so many women go to college and find their husband at college and that's the end of that.

TeenHollywood: Why do you think girls are always attracted to the bad boys?

Amber: Well, as a woman, we need to train these men. I think a good challenge is irresistible.

TeenHollywood: Have you ever had to hide your intelligence to get or please a guy?

Amber: I think part of the reason I do this role so accurately is that I was that girl too. It's survival in a sense. You are in high school and you're thinking, 'this could be so much more, it could be so much easier if boys liked me' or 'if the girls liked me because the boys liked me' and it's horrible. As a human animal, I want to survive in that situation that is high school and you kind of adapt to be the girl that, even if you know the answer, you don't raise your hand. That's how the movie starts. She's in class and she purposefully does not answer a question when she's called on and she plays it dumb. I know what that feels like. You tell yourself to shut up.

TeenHollywood: But you don't do that now I hope!

Amber: [laughs] Does it look like I do?

TeenHollywood: How is it for you, as an young actress, to maintain independence in the industry?

Amber: The industry is not an easy one but I'm in it for a reason and I'm not surprised by anything. You're a fool if you're surprised by this industry and I am a single woman in Hollywood and it is difficult. I'm not saying it's a walk in the park but this is something I've wanted my whole life and I'll be da**ed if I'm going to complain about it now.

TeenHollywood: When did you first get the acting bug?

Amber: My father always encouraged me to be an actress. I guess, as a parent, you can look at your child and see what they are kind of prone to and I was that kid; I had a video camera when I was a child and filmed everything and organized plays and I was always on camera too. I would never just be behind the camera, hello! I would put myself in as the star. I did do the plays in high school before I dropped out and finished high school on my own. I fell in love with theater in high school and it was something that my parents really encouraged, probably up until the moment I said 'I'm gonna go do it tomorrow'. They've been great.

TeenHollywood: You have other films coming up. How rough is The Informers going to be? How are audiences going to respond to that?

Amber: I hope they have a really difficult time with it. That's why I'm in this industry. I want to challenge people. I want people to think. I don't want people to just zone out and get everything that expected when they walked into the movie. The novel by Bret Easton Ellis I was a big fan of. It's dark and it's real and it's gritty and it's hard to swallow.

TeenHollywood: How much of a challenge was your character?

Amber: It was really difficult. I always play characters so different from myself. I don't look like a character actor but that's a hundred percent what I am. I always play characters that are difficult and challenging and that's why I like them or else I would just have a normal job. [laughs]. But, the film The Informers, I'm very proud of just having seen a little bit of it and having worked on it, it was hard to film. It was hard to swallow. It's going to be really difficult for Middle America to say good things about me after that film.

TeenHollywood: Wow! Who do you play in The Stepfather?

Amber: I play a girl named Kelley, the girlfriend of the stepson and I'm a very strong part of the family that the stepfather infiltrates and everything falls apart after that.

TeenHollywood: You're also in the comedy Pineapple Express. How did you survive working with Seth Rogen and the gang?

Amber: I loved it. It was the funnest set I'd ever been on. It was the only comedy I'd done at that point. It was all improv. There was a script but no real lines for us. It's not hard working off people like Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow and James Franco. But, I went in expecting that I was going to be funny, I was going to have fun, laugh all day long because I'm the drama queen, literally and all I do is cry in my films and scream and get killed or whatever. I get on set and what does the director tell me? I'm crying the whole movie! He tells me to burst into tears and be neurotic so, irony? I don't know but it was a lot of fun.

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