‘Aquaman’ Star Amber Heard Says Mera Is Her ‘Most Covered Up’ Character

Amber Heard spends most of “Aquaman” running around in a tight body suit that looks like fish scales, but Heard realized that her character never shows much actual skin. She just wishes that she knew that before spending time at the gym.

“I trained for a long time, but I realized way too long into filming that I had been training for five, six months at this point, and it was the most covered up I’d ever been — on any set. I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’” Heard laughed during a press conference in New York earlier this month. “He’s [Jason Momoa] the one who’s topless all the time.”

Heard reprises her “Justice League” character Princess Mera in the movie, but she gets much more screen time in “Aquaman,” the latest DC Comics adaptation to hit the big screen. Viewers will see Mera recruit Arthur Curry (Momoa) to fight the brother he’s never met, King Orm (Patrick Wilson), and take back the throne of Atlantis.

For Heard, it was important that Mera had her own sense of self and wasn’t just a victim that Aquaman must save.

“Mera is and never wasn’t anything other than a … superhero in her own right,” Heard explained. “She is no damsel in distress, and I’m lucky that I worked with people that wanted to maintain ... those aspects of strength and integrity and individuality and agency [instead] of compromising that for palatability and sexuality and other things that can sometimes take the place of other aspects. Those are far more interesting to me.”

As stated in International Business Times’ review, “Aquaman” lets Mera be fierce and independent. However, it’s also worth noting that she’s one of only two primary female characters, with the other being Aquaman’s largely-absent mother, Atlanna (Nicole Kidman).

“Aquaman” swims into theaters Friday.