The provocative new NBC drama The Playboy Club (premiering on September 19th) takes place in Chicago in the early 1960's, at a time and place that challenged the existing social mores and transformed American culture forever. The legendary and seductive club is filled with beautiful Bunnies, striving for their own independence and careers. When innocent new Bunny Maureen (Amber Heard) accidentally kills the patriarch of the Bianchi crime family, Nick Dalton (Eddie Cibrian) – the ultimate playboy and one of the city’s top attorneys – comes to her aid. At the Playboy Club, everyone has their own ambitions and agendas, and they are all hiding secrets.
During a recent interview to promote the show’s upcoming Fall premiere, actress Amber Heard talked about wearing her Bunny costume, that her character has her own share of secrets and skeletons in her closet, how the women that worked at the Playboy Club were empowered by their sexuality rather than being victimized by it, and how this was a time when there were different opportunities and expectations for women. She also talked about how she still hopes to be putting on a costume of a different kind for Red Sonja. Check out what she had to say after the jump:
HEARD: I am an actor and, at the end of the day, I’m playing a role that has been written for me. It’s one that I’ve chosen, but one that is ultimately written and designed for me, so I don’t take it personally. All the questions are legitimate. I understand them. I think that we come from a somewhat puritanical and chauvinistic point-of-view, so that when we’re asked questions about women being empowered by sexuality, we often confuse it with women who are victimized by it. I have to make that distinction because, in 2011, we should not see the two as the same thing. They are very different. Women who are empowered by it and have choices based off of their sexuality, are very different from the ones that are being taken advantage of.
All the Playboy clubs were run by men, and Hugh Hefner probably had a lot to say about how women were portrayed, and what they could and couldn’t do. How are women running the show here, in reality?
HEARD: I think there is a common, puritanical way that we look at things where, if it involves sexuality, somehow the women must be compromised. It’s just chauvinistic to deny women their sexuality. It’s about empowering. It comes down to choices. If the choices are available and they’re making that choice, they’re not being exploited.
How do you walk the line, so as not to make this show exploitative of women?
HEARD: Regarding Maureen, don’t underestimate that character and her intelligence, and the journey that she’s going to take to really rise above that. I think that the moment that Nick (Eddie Cibrian) helps her is more of a reflection of who Nick is. That comes at no cost to her. I think Maureen allows herself to be helped when she needs it, and by no means relies on any character, male or female, in this story, and never has. We’ll see that journey, and that’s part of why I’m so excited to be involved in this project, and chose this project as a platform to deliver that message, as well as others. This is about choice. Ultimately, it’s a different generation. There were different opportunities and different expectations for women. I am fortunate to be a part of this new generation where I don’t need to choose between combat boots and an apron. I can do it in heels.
How do you feel about someone like Gloria Steinem saying that Mad Men is so popular right now because men who run networks and write shows have a nostalgia for that time, and what men and women were like then?
HEARD: Well, she forgets the viewership in that statement. She talks about men writing the shows and us girls somehow being puppets in this play that we have no control over. But, every woman on the show is an independent, self-sufficient, intelligent woman making a career for herself, and we’re representing a group of women who were doing the same, in a time where options were completely different.
Has your coming out changed the way Hollywood perceives you?
HEARD: It makes no difference to me, personally. I’ve always been a private person and I’ve always valued my private life. A lot of the media attention surrounding my relationship has been frustrating simply because I’m a private person. But, at the end of the day, I think there is an important moment happening in our society right now, and I have to do the right thing. At the end of the day, I don’t label myself one way or another. I come from a place where I find it hard to identify with a label. I’ve dated men in the past, and now I’m dating a woman, and I see it as ultimately no big deal.
Are you still doing Red Sonja, and are you looking forward to that costume?
HEARD: I don’t know. I think that that would be a change from my Playboy suit, but a welcomed one.