Rising actress Amber Heard avoids typecasting by playing very role in the book. A trio of fall films finds the beautiful Texan displaying her range - and sharpening her knife.

Generally, a phone interview with a Hollywood actor requires at least one publicist mediating difficult questions, and the impression that the star on the other end of the line has told the last three reporters the same anecdote. Not so with Amber Heard. While traveling through Europe by train, somewhere between Paris and Amsterdam, the 22-year-old actress took time out of her first vacation in several years to speak with us about her career. She even called back when the signal cut out, apologizing for being “in the middle of nowhere.”

Although she’s managed to stay steadily busy with promising parts since she started acting professionally at 18 talent (including a turn as the young Charlize Theron in North Country), Heard’s first major roles are only now being unleashed on the viewing public. She’ll grace the screen in three films over the remainder of the year—Pineapple Express, out this summer; Bret Easton Ellis’s The Informers, slated for a mid-fall release; and All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, which has been promised before the end of the year.

Mandy Lane, the native Texan’s first movie gig after leaving Austin for L.A., is destined to become a cult horror classic. The 2006 film, a festival darling that will finally see theatrical release in August after being plagued by distribution problems, tells the tale of six Texas teenagers who spend the weekend out on a ranch in the middle of nowhere. The kids booze it up, snort Ritalin, taunt the taciturn caretaker, hook up, and then, one by one, fall victim to a series of brutal murders. Heard plays the title character, the enigmatic Lane, a role that draws on her girl-next-door beauty and ability to actually act, even in the midst of gushing blood and teen-scream mayhem (a talent she may have picked up as a self-described “drama nerd” in high school).

As Seth Rogen’s girlfriend in Pineapple Express, Heard gets the opportunity to try out her comedy chops. The film (sure to become required viewing in dorm rooms across the country) follows two hapless stoners as they frantically evade angry mobsters after accidentally witnessing a hit. And then there’s The Informers, a series of interconnected stories about love, lust, greed, and vampires in mid-’80s L.A. “My character is a very energetically promiscuous woman in the most decadent time in the most decadent place in the world,” Heard says. It’s obvious the girl has some range, to say the least. Annaliese Griffin

ANNALIESE GRIFFIN What did you think going into a shoestring production like Mandy Lane?
AMBER HEARD You can’t forget that it was made for like a hundred dollars, I think fifty-seven of which were spent building fake dead cows. I went out to Hollywood and they sent me right back to Texas where I came from; the first day of hair and makeup and I had mud all over and fake blood poured on my head.
AG For a low-budget movie, it’s visually striking and has such a distinct style.
AH When I saw what the director [Jonathan Levine] could do with a camera, I said I’d do anything he wrote. He could sneeze on a piece of paper and I will be in that movie. Jon is so talented, what he did with that movie is far more impressive than anything I had control over.
AG Your character, Mandy Lane, is a little subversive.
AH There’s something really cool about her. There’s something I genuinely am proud of when I look at Mandy Lane. Certainly, as an artist, and as a person (and an intelligent one at times), I am done no justice by playing the trophy prom queen or supporting girlfriend.
AG For you, as a young, beautiful actress, is it hard to break out of that arm-charm image as far as roles go?
AH It does pay my bills, but that doesn’t mean I can’t criticize the system. If it goes without any sort of criticism, then things won’t ever change. I don’t necessarily like it when people call me a feminist, although I guess you could, but it’s really just about being awake and not stupid. I mean, God forbid you are blonde, or pretty.
AG Is there a particular type of role or movie you’re lookingfor right now?
AH Screenplay adaptations of novels. I’m an avid reader and I would love to be in more artistic projects, more independent projects that mean something, not necessarily a box office number, although that’s always great.
AG How do you start to process a role when you get a script?
AH There’s no real method to my connection to or understanding of the character. It’s that moment where I read a novel, put the book down, and all of a sudden I have to go back to myself. If I can read a script and forget for one hundred pages that I am who I am and, rather, become privy to this world, that’s how I know it’s a good one.
AG Are there any directors in particular you’d like to work with?
AH I really love Tony Scott. I really love watching Almodóvar and Alejandro González Iñárritu. I was so influenced by the movie Paris, je t’aime. It has twenty-two directors involved. I wanted to just write down their names all over my hands and arms so I would never forget them and remember to stalk them when I got back to Hollywood. There’s something about the fact that I can’t remember their names but I can remember their work that makes me feel secure in saying those are the kinds of directors I’d like to work with.
AG How does living in L.A. compare for you to Texas?
AH I like the freedom. I’m so much the Texan girl who’s been transported somewhere else. I choose to live in Los Angeles, but I won’t be there forever.
AG What’s it like to go back to Texas now that you’re a star?
AH There’s no difference, really. I still land in Texas and hop in the back of the pickup and am expected to help my dad out on the land, whether it’s running his dogs or helping my mom in the kitchen. There’s no part of my career that is maintained past the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

Photography Nick Haymes
Styling Jessica Diehl
Makeup Erika Abe
Hair Jason Murillo (Frank Reps)
Location the Sunset Marquis Hotel, Los Angeles
Dress Paul & Joe
On lips, Paul & Joe Beauté Lipstick N in 35

Pineapple Express is out in August 2008 from Columbia Pictures.
The Informers is out in October 2008 from Senator Entertainment.
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane is out later this year from Senator Entertainment.