Megan Davis never anticipated the surge of online vitriol that came her way after being cast as Amber Heard in a Tubi movie about the actress’ headline-making defamation trial with ex-husband Johnny Depp.
Nearly two years after “Hot Take: The Depp/Heard Trial” premiered, Davis, 35, tells Pvnew in an exclusive interview how she overcame “so much hate” from legions of Depp supporters and others who felt she wasn’t a right fit to play Heard.
“When that role was announced, it was like a wave of so much hate. I think probably like … 30,000 messages and comments. And so many of them were awful, just like, ‘You’re so ugly, you’re so fat. You’re an embarrassment,’” she recalls.
“Just really mean stuff. And at the time, I think I thought I was prepared. I knew there would be some response, but I don’t think I thought it would be like that.”
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Davis — whose acting credits also include “American Horror Story,” “2 Broke Girls” and “Young & Hungry,” among other TV shows and films — says that she descended into a “very dark place” for several days as the painful words kept pouring in.
The star, who is a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community and identifies as queer, says that being called “gay” — in a derogatory manner — was particularly upsetting.
“I had to deal with a lot of my internalized homophobia when people would call me gay because I was like, ‘I feel like I’m queer, pansexual, bisexual, whatever you want to call it.’ But I realized that my aversion of the label, it had to do with my own healing that I hadn’t done, my own internalized homophobia,” she explains.
Davis, who grew up in a religious household in Tulsa, Okla., says the silver lining of these specific attacks was feeling the need to address any complicated feelings surrounding her own queerness.
“once I did that work, you could call me anything at this point. I don’t care because I know who I am,” says the artist, who was, in part, thrilled to portray Heard because the latter is openly bisexual and she hoped to provide some authentic representation for viewers.
“It was a really good lesson for me, it was a difficult lesson for me and, usually, I try not to respond to people that are saying hateful things.”
Such rhetoric inspired Davis — who didn’t watch the trial’s extensive media coverage until she was asked to audition for “Hot Take” — to “humanize” Heard as much as she could.
“When I listened to those tapes, I recognized a lot of myself in how I used to argue with people that I was in love with,” she says of the audio recordings that were played in court as evidence of Heard and Depp’s tumultuous dynamic, damning both parties in the process.
“It’s challenging when you’re in love with someone who has a larger-than-life life. I think she was doing the best she could and I think most of us are usually doing the best that we can,” Davis elaborates. “It wasn’t really a challenge to humanize her because I felt like she was very human and people weren’t giving her credit for that.”
Still, the brunette beauty emphasizes that Heard is not a “blameless saint” — but admits she gained a level of empathy for her as she studied courtroom clips and recordings of her arguments with Depp in preparation for the project.
“I felt really a lot of … compassion maybe is the right word? The world, the way they reacted to her, it was really frustrating to me,” she says of widespread hostility hurled at Heard juxtaposed against the fervent public support Depp was met with.
“No, she wasn’t perfect and yes, she did a lot of things wrong and no, I don’t think she did herself any favors by testifying on the stand,” Davis elaborates. “He was not perfect either and the day that the world responded to him was completely different and that was really frustrating to me.”
Depp, 61 — who was played by actor Mark Hapka in “Hot Take” — and Heard, 38, dominated the news cycle in May 2022 as their court case played out over her 2018 Washington Post op-ed about domestic abuse.
A verdict was reached that June, with Depp being awarded $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages.
Heard — who was married to her “The Rum Diary” co-star from 2015 to 2017 — has since moved to Madrid, where she lives with her 3-year-old daughter, Oonagh.
Davis is under the impression that Heard has never seen “Hot Take,” which she believes might be for the best.
“I don’t think she did and honestly kudos to her because I think she just checked out of the US and went to Spain and was like, ‘I’m just going to live my life,’ which I have so much respect for,” she says.
“If she ever watched it, I would just hope that she felt like it was authentic to her in some way … I would just hope that she at least felt seen or that I understood some of her perspective as a human being and as an artist.”
When “Hot Take” eventually debuted, Davis says that any contempt toward her decision to depict Heard on screen seemed to subside. “When it premiered, it was really quiet,” she notes. “That felt like a good sign, that people either thought I did a good job or comprehended the work and why I wanted to do it.”
As for Depp, Davis heard that the Oscar nominee allegedly held a viewing party when it originally aired.
“I know that Johnny watched it because he threw some, like, watching party,” she tells Pvnew, though she renders reticent when asked for her thoughts on his possible reaction to the movie.
“I have a lot of thoughts on him in general,” Davis teases before quipping, “I hope he enjoyed it.”
In her next move, the Los Angeles resident — who released a book of poetry titled “What Breaks Us” this year — is gearing up for the Friday premiere of her self-written and self-produced short, “Hemorrhage,” at Toronto’s TIFF Lightbox during the Canadian Screen Award-qualifying Female Eye Film Festival.
“I’m super excited about it,” she says of the project, which spotlights the impact of 2023’s Roe vs. Wade reversal on women’s reproductive health. “For obvious reasons, it felt like an important topic to explore.”
