Yahoo News Amber Heard was told coming out would 'ruin her career'
Amber Heard has once again opened up about the industry reaction to her coming out in Hollywood, just a few days after her Justice League co-star Ezra Miller shared his own experience.
Back in March, Amber was speaking at The Economist's second annual Pride & Prejudice Summit when she revealed that she was 'strongly advised' to keep her sexual orientation to herself, adding that going public had impacted her career.
However, speaking in this month's Allure magazine, the actress said that while she was told she'd be throwing away her career if she went public, she couldn't live any other way.
"I'm a person. I like who I like," she explained. "I happened to be dating a woman, and people started taking pictures of us walking to our car after dinner.
"I [was] holding her hand, and I realised that I have two options: I can let go of her hand and, when asked about it, I can say that my private life is my private life. Or I could not let go and own it."
She continued: "Everyone told me, 'You cannot do this'. I had played opposite Nicolas Cage, and in another I was playing opposite Johnny [Depp]. And everyone said, 'You're throwing it all away. You can't do this to your career'.
"And I said, 'I cannot do this any other way. Watch me'. "
Proud to be included in the inspiring #200women project and book. This is the time!
A post shared by Amber Heard (@amberheard) on Nov 9, 2017 at 5:25pm PST
Heard added that she was told that no other working actress was out, but argued that it's important for people to resist labels and go beyond the 'limits' of identifying as LGBTQ.
"They pointed to no other working romantic lead, no other actress, that was out. I didn't come out. I was never in," Heard said.
"It's limiting, that LGBTQ thing. It served a function as an umbrella for marginalised people to whom rights were being denied, but it loses its efficacy because of the nuanced nature of humanity.
"As we become more educated and expand the facts of our nature, we keep adding letters. It was a great shield, but now we're stuck behind it. It's so important to resist labels. I don't care how many letters you add. At some point, it's going to spell 'WE ARE HUMAN'. "
Heard's comments follow on from her co-star Ezra Miller admitting he was told he'd made a mistake in coming out when he did so in 2012.
"I was told, when I gave that interview I'd made a mistake," he said. "Folks in the industry, folks outside the industry. People I've never spoken to.
"They said there's a reason so many gay, queer, gender-fluid people in Hollywood conceal their sexual identity, or their gender identity in their public image. I was told I had done a 'silly' thing in... thwarting my own potential to be a leading man."
Justice League is released in cinemas on Friday (November 17) – and you can read our review to find out if it's any good right here.
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