Stunning and fiercely outspoken, Austin native Amber Heard thumbs her nose at what she calls puritanical put-downs of her provocative new TV drama, The Playboy Club

"It's just chauvinistic to deny women their sexuality," said Heard, who plays bunny Maureen in the 1960s drama debuting at 9 p.m. Monday on NBC. She told television journalists that she sees the drama as empowering.

"It comes down ultimately to choices. And just like anything else, if there are choices available and they're making the choice, they're not being exploited," she said.

"It's a common, you know, puritanical kind of way we look at things," she added, "that we consider if it involves sexuality that somehow the women must be compromised."

In the pilot, her character finds herself in a sticky situation, but not because she's compromised sexually. She's attacked by an aggressive customer when she goes to a back room to get cigarettes. The man ends up dead when Maureen defends herself.

Another patron of the Chicago club, high-profile lawyer Nick Dalton (Eddie Cibrian), comes upon the scene and, realizing Maureen is in danger because of the man's mob ties, helps her dispose of the body. As a result, she gets on the wrong side of bunny-turned-"house mother" Carol-Lynne (Laura Benanti), who's dating Nick and misinterprets his attentions to Maureen as sexual.

"Don't underestimate (Maureen) and her intelligence and the journey she's going to take," Heard said, adding that her character by no means "relies on any character, male or female, and never has. And we'll see that journey, and that's part of why I'm so excited to be involved."

She also isn't bothered by the bunny costume - ears, tail and all. "You put on the suit and you're instantly transported back to this time, to the smoke-filled rooms and the music and the glitter and the songs and the heels and the fishnets."

Later, at an interview during an NBC party, the 25-year-old Heard spoke fondly of her childhood in Texas. Her dad made his living as a contractor, but he also broke horses, she said, adding that she, too, loved riding and still does. However, like her Playboy character, she couldn't wait to embark on her own life journey.

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"I dropped out early from high school and took my G.E.D.," she said. She modeled, which "afforded me enough money to travel and support myself."

And like Maureen, she has made other choices, too. One of her pet peeves is labels. "I don't see any evidence for a supreme omnipotent, omnipresent God," she said. However, she prefers not to be labeled an atheist, as "there's a lot of stigma and misunderstanding surrounding that word."

On the subject of relationships, she said she's dating a woman, but "I don't apply a label to it. I love who I love. It's the person that matters to me."

Heard, who said she's also been in serious relationships with men, said she decided to come out publicly because "I'm saddened by a lot of the homophobia and blatant lack of tolerance, respect and lack of human decency in the modern political conversation right now."

In addition to Playboy, Heard soon will appear in the film adaptation of The Rum Diary, Hunter S. Thompson's novel set in Puerto Rico. In the movie, due in theaters in late October, she plays Chenault, the free-spirited woman who gets under the skin of Johnny Depp's boozy journalist.

It's her favorite Thompson novel, she said. "It's a pure, honest, genuine representation of the classic age-old fight of art vs. commerce."

jjakle@express-news.net