James Wan’s upcoming film, ‘Aquaman,’ will give fans their fair share of Jason Momoa’s Aquaman and Amber Heard’s character, Mera. Giving a set interview during the filming of ‘Aquaman,’ producer Peter Safran and Heard were asked about the love story between the two characters. Safran made it clear that this isn’t your typical love story, saying:
“I wouldn’t necessarily call it in this movie a love story. It’s very much in the vein of ‘Indiana Jones.’ James wanted to tell this swashbuckling, fun, quest movie. It’s a great time for everybody to see. So, the relationship is a little bit Michael Douglas-Kathleen Turner in ‘Romancing the Stone,’ which is ultimately a romantic action movie. But, I wouldn’t say it’s actually a romance.”
He continued:
“There is a great antagonism, because of the places they come from. She is all about duty and honor and he’s all about looking out for number one. And, I think what they both realize over the course of their journey, he harbors such anger toward Atlantis for killing his mother. He learns that he shouldn’t judge the entirety of Atlantis based on the actions of one man and she learns that the surface world is a place that’s really worth preserving and finding a way to coexist.”
Heard explained that, while there is a certain level of attraction between the two heroes, they don’t exist to support each other. She said:
“That’s the thing, I know what you mean. He is really hard to look at, you know? We all know that. But you know, the thing I really like about this is I feel it has a more modern approach, I think, to what would otherwise be a more classic superhero formula. This is very much a story where they are equal partners. Because they come from different worlds, their strengths are very different.”
She continued, saying:
“Where one excels in one world, the other is a fish out of water. Pun intended. [Laughs] I guess I’ll be saying that a whole lot. Just gonna get used to owning it! But it’s true. Mera, when she’s on the surface world, it’s very much an alien world to her. Same way that when Arthur is in Atlantis, he’s completely out of his element. But we both excel at being in our own worlds, and because we have our own identities and because our identities are tied up in who we are in our respective worlds, we share equal responsibility in the journey.”
One point Heard wanted to make clear is that Mera does not need Aquaman to rescue her, she can take care of herself:
“Never. And what I really love is that it does not rely on this whole damsel in distress formulaic thing we see all the time, we’ve seen a million times. He doesn’t rescue the girl and then save the world. He doesn’t — in fact, I save him. Like I said, they go on this adventure as equal partners and they end it that way. There is an element of attraction there, but it is not the thing — because they have a job to do, they have a mission to fulfill and are equal partners in the success or failure of that mission, that takes a back seat to this. Their relationship, that element is not the driving force or what brings them together.”
Don’t miss ‘Aquaman’ when it opens in theaters on December 21st.
