Girl Power! Amber Heard talks about her strong female character in 3 Days to Kill and going head-to-head with co-star Kevin Costner.
There’s no denying she’s a blonde bombshell, but now Amber Heard is taking Hollywood by storm showing she can hold her own in the new action thriller 3 Days to Kill not only with her looks, but also with her gun-toting action skills.
The movie follows Ethan (Costner), a dangerous international spy, who is determined to give up his high stakes life to finally build a closer relationship with his estranged wife (Connie Neilson) and daughter (Hailee Steinfeld), whom he’s previously kept at arm’s length to keep out of danger. But first, he must complete one last mission–with the help of spicy agency handler Vivi (Heard)— even if it means juggling the two toughest assignments yet: hunting down the world’s most ruthless terrorist and keeping his family alive.
Heard has slowly been making her way onto the Hollywood scene but lately, it’s with her whirlwind romance and engagement to Johnny Depp, with whom she starred in The Rum Diaries, that the young starlet has been making headlines. She has caught the attention of critics and audiences alike for her supporting roles in hit films such as Pineapple Express with James Franco and Seth Rogen, North Country with Charlize Theron, Zombieland with Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg, and Robert Rodriguez’s star studded movie, Machete Kills.
With her rising fame and Old Hollywood glam looks, McG couldn’t think of anyone else to fill the role of Vivi, a spunky young spy who embraces the digital world and is the opposite of the stuffy and old fashioned Ethan. “Amber is a girl from Texas. She’s an accomplished marksman. I think that you need to have life experience to be able to draw upon that to be a great actor and she’s lived a very, very interesting uninhibited life,” McG said of Heard.
Vivi was intended to be a throwback to some of McG’s favourite screen bombshells such as Lana Turner and Rita Hayworth. “She’s someone who has lived this international life and has a deep understanding of what makes people do what they do,” McG says of Heard’s character with whom Ethan sees as a boisterous woman who always manages to get what she wants.
“Vivi exists in the world that she made for herself and she makes her own rules and you can’t ask for a better platform as an actor,” Heard says. “She gets to call the shots without actually having to fire the gun.”
The strong female character that goes head to head with Costner Ethan is what attracted Heard to the role. “What’s interesting is that he’s very accomplished and he’s very good at his job. He’s tried and true. He’s a veteran of the trade that they’re in. And she’s a whole other school. It’s a new school. It’s very completely opposite, in some ways,” Heard told Collider. “They’re adversaries, which is what I liked. It’s rare that you see that dynamic between a man and a woman in a film. It was like, ‘why couldn’t’t I be his boss, just because I wear high heels?’ You don’t see that often, which is why I liked it.”
But Vivi isn’t just different from Ethan; she’s totally different from the average woman, not just because of her unique job, but also because of her personality. “Vivi doesn’t live in the same world that we live in. She doesn’t even live in the same world that the rest of the characters live in,” Heard continued. “Her power is skill and knowledge, and her ability to do her job well and be unaffected by it, on an emotional level. Being seductive is just another side effect of all the other stuff. It didn’t affect her. It was just a consequence. And I always prefer to shoot the gun than wear a wedding dress. It’s far more interesting to me.”
With an award-winning actor as their co-star, most actors would be intimidated, but Heard was at ease with Costner and had nothing but praise for him. “Kevin is wonderful. I was surprised and really taken with what it was like to work with him because you learn so much,” she told Access Hollywood.
“He’s also a filmmaker and there’s a difference. There is something that changes when you work with an actor who is also a filmmaker. They approach it differently. They interact with you differently. There’s a different kind of concern given to details that I think is overlooked unless you have directed a movie. I learned a lot from him.”
3 Days To Kill hits theatres on February 21 and stars Kevin Costner, Amber Heard, Hailee Steinfeld, and Connie Neilson.
—Sarah Khan
Leave a Reply