By Sharanya Gopinathan
Actress Amber Heard is suing the producer of the movie London Fields, Christopher Hanley, and the reason why should make you pretty mad.
Chrisopher Hanley first sued Amber Heard and Mathew Cullen, the director of London Fields, for breach of contract after Heard refused to attend the film’s release in November 2016. It’s become clear why she may have boycotted the film’s release, as she’s now alleged that Hanley inserted nude scenes into the movie without her permission.
To be specific, he released a ‘Producer’s Cut’ with unauthorised images and scenes, and used a body double that was supposed to indicate that the actress in those scenes was Amber Heard. All of this things violate the nudity rider of Heard’s contract, and are also just plain vile. Heard’s complaint also specifies that Heard had no knowledge of these scenes being shot, and that they were shot with a skeleton crew after Heard left the set.
This is a pretty enraging series of events, and ones that violate several of Heard’s rights, not just her contract. It also makes me wonder at how many women this, or things like this, have happened to: Amber Heard, being a fairly high-profile actor, only brought these issues out when she was sued by the producer for breach of contract, but at least she had the means and clout to do so. Many upcoming actors in the industry might not have those same advantages. And sometimes, even if they do, they’re left with no options for recourse due to their contracts.
In 2010, a lot of people were sharing a clip of Kim Kardashian crying over a magazine cover with vicious comments about how she deserved it. Except she absolutely didn’t. The W cover features a nude Kardashian, except she shot the cover nude based on the fact that the producers of the cover told her that her body in the final photo would be covered in art, which didn’t happen when the cover finally came out. The clip showed her sobbing and saying she’s uncomfortable with how her body was being shown, and that this wasn’t what she had been expecting. She couldn’t do anything to stop the magazine cover from being distributed no matter how violated and uncomfortable she felt, because of her carefully worded contract.
I mean, I know that a lot of people feel like it’s difficult to feel sorry for celebrities given their extreme privilege, but issues like these are important, and consent doesn’t stop being an important issue when you’re famous.