Amber Heard was nearly replaced in the Aquaman and Justice League franchise revealed DC Films president Walter Hamada. He said, was almost dropped from the film because of chemistry concerns between her and co-star Jason Momoa.

On Tuesday, Hamada’s video testimony was played during the Depp–Heard trial and contradicted that of Heard and entertainment industry expert Kathryn Arnold, who both said that Heard almost lost the role in the sequel after her messy split with Johnny Depp.

Hamada said. “The reality is it’s not uncommon on movies for two leads to not have chemistry and that it’s sort of movie magic and editorial—the ability to put performances together with the magic of a great score and how you put the pieces together, you can fabricate that chemistry. At the end of the day when you watch the movie, it looked like they have great chemistry. But I just know that through the course of postproduction, it took a lot of effort to get there. Sometimes you don’t, sometimes it’s very easy. Sometimes you just put characters together on the screen and they work…. It’s like what makes a movie star a movie star. You know it when you see it. The chemistry wasn’t there…. This one was more difficult because of the lack of chemistry between the two.”

Hamada was also asked to respond to Heard’s other claim that, along with struggling to keep her role in Aquaman 2, her part in the sequel was significantly pared back. Hamada, however, said that it had previously been decided that Mera would have a lesser role in Aquaman 2. Hamada said the new movie was thought of “from the very early stages of development” as a “buddy comedy” between Aquaman and his half-brother, King Orm, played by Patrick Wilson.