Mark Hapka and Megan Davis talk about taking on the risky roles of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. Image Source: ET
Mark Hapka and Megan Davis talk about taking on the risky roles of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.
Hot Take: The Depp/Heard Trial is a movie that documents the infamous and highly publicized defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard over an article that was published by the actress in 2018. The trial was streamed live for the audience, and the movie is streaming right now on Tubi.
Actor Mark Hapka plays Johnny Depp in the movie and said that he was equally skeptical about taking up the role just the way the audience was about it when he heard it for the first time. He said that when he was offered the role, he knew that it was a risky role to take on and it was not necessarily a hell yes from him and he had questions.
The actor claimed that he called the director and the producers in an order to learn more about the type of a film they intended to make. If there was going to be any bias or slant toward one side, the actor claimed that he would not have been interested. He continued by saying he accepted the role because he and actress Megan Davis wanted to show genuine people on TV with objectivity and sensitivity.
Actress Megan Davis, who plays Amber Heard in the movie, shared with Entertainment Weekly that it’s a topic that people, including her, would want to be treated with respect, and the problem, she thinks, with the trial is that people saw themselves in both of them. Megan further shared that everyone was a believer in portraying Amber Heard as a real human being and her truth as fairly as his, and that made her feel comfortable, even though it was for a short time frame.
Mark said that he knew that the movie Hot Take: The Depp/Heard Trial was going to be made with or without him, so he spoke to Megan Davis, and she told him that she was going to be protective of Amber and Mark was going to be protective of Johnny, so in doing the tug of war, they could find that balance and make sure that everything they are trying to portray stays as neutral as possible. It is no surprise that Amber Heard received a lot of backlashes and hate online during the six-week trial that was held at the Fairfax County Court in Virginia, and Megan said that she is aware of that, and all of that somewhat inspired her to take on the character even more because she added that it breaks her heart when the audience fails to see that people are human beings.
Even with Hot Take: The Depp/Heard Trial being made with a positive intention, Mark Hapka said that they always knew that there was going to be criticism and backlash with their movie. He believes that in that sense, he was not too concerned about it because he was just there to do his job, which was to add authenticity to the testimonies and dramatize what each person said. The trial was such moment in the cultural zeitgeist with so many layers that each person could ask would perceive this trial completely differently; there is no objective truth to it.
During the interview, Mark and Megan mentioned that neither of them had watched the trial in real-time, so in an order to conduct their investigation, they both used courtroom testimony, recordings of the former couple arguing that were admitted as evidence, and red carpet interviews from their quick romance. Mark Hapka claimed that rather than attempting to impersonate the actor, he chose to concentrate on elements such as Johnny Depp's spirit and mannerisms. The actor noted that Johnny Depp has an accent that is difficult to identify and said he believes it is a combination of all the parts the actor has performed, which have stuck with him and have all sort of melted together.
According to Mark, the styling team went to great lengths to comprehend Johnny Depp's unusual and erratic fashion, even down to the handkerchiefs, safety pins, and bracelets that weigh down his arms as well as the necklaces and various earrings. Additionally, he claimed that Johnny Depp has numerous tattoos and that some of them had to be added or removed; they had a whole timeline of Johnny Depp's tattoos to create Mark Hapka's looks.
And for Amber Heard, to better understand the actress, Megan Davis claimed to have listened to the audio recordings of the former couple's conversations. She claimed that during those times, she felt the closest to the actress. In her opinion, a person is never more exposed and raw than when they are having a disagreement with someone they love, Megan continued. In her experience, both her best and worst times have resulted from love. The actress said that she really felt like she saw herself in the actress as she was listening to the actress on audio recordings.
However, the actress would like the audience to know that, based on all of her discussions with producers, directors, and the studios involved in this project, she appears to believe that no one would come into this wanting anything other than to try and portray the truth. The actors mentioned that they understand that people who have experienced domestic abuse might object to the dramatization, adding that some of the scenes were depicting violence between the two of them were difficult to film. Both actors are most interested in using the film to help humanize two real persons whose misery and humiliation were witnessed by millions of people worldwide.
The movie attempts to satirize the scenes from the trial that were made-up into TikTok videos that spoof the trial. Mark Hapka came to the conclusion that it was terrible that their entire event had to be publicized and brought to everyone's attention. However, he noted that he believes the only bright spot in anything is when things are relevant for people, and he simply hopes that the way we depicted it in the movie was able to lend genuine humanity to the circumstance rather than just words on the stand.
For Mark Hapka, the movie sparked a lot more empathy for both Johnny Depp and Amber Heard; nevertheless, the sensationalism of it all is also a very significant aspect of the film that must be acknowledged. He said that they are calling attention to the fact that there were numerous contributing variables, many participants, social media users, and those at home that helped this situation reach its current state.Whether people were on her side or his side, agreed or disagreed with their actions, or felt one way or the other based on their own experiences.
Megan Davis says that she thinks what she hopes would come out of with the movie is that, people could see Amber as a human being who was probably doing the best she could, and she sees herself in that, and she understands and has experienced it herself.
Information Source: Entertainment Weekly
