Actor Worried About B-Movie Flop Wins $1M Suit

France's Eva Green wins unusual lawsuit
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Apr 28, 2023 3:45 PM CDT
Actor Accused of Calling Producer 'Vomit' Wins $1M Suit
Eva Green arrives at the High Court in London on Jan. 30.   (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Actor Eva Green was awarded $1 million Friday by a British court in a sensational dispute over the collapse of a film project she feared was destined to become a B movie that could ruin her career. The film in question was a sci-fi thriller, but the case played out in court like a melodrama. The producers of A Patriot portrayed the French actor as a diva. She'd called one of the executive producers a "devious sociopath" and "pure vomit" and said the production manager was a "moron." A High Court judge cut through the vitriol that he said threatened to complicate the case and deemed it "relatively straightforward," awarding Green the fee she'd been promised for the production that folded in 2019, per the AP.

Green, who played Vesper Lynd in the 2006 version of the James Bond thriller Casino Royale, said after the verdict that her professional reputation had been upheld and that she had stood up to a small group of rich men who employed "bully-boy tactics" to use her as a scapegoat for their own failures. Green, 42, said she “fell in love” with the script for A Patriot and its environmental message but became increasingly concerned as corners were cut and production moved from Ireland to England. “When an actor has appeared in a B movie, they are labeled as a B actor, you never get offered quality work ever again,” she testified.

Justice Michael Green dismissed a countersuit brought by England-based film production company White Lantern Film that had said the actor made "excessive creative and financial demands" and torpedoed the production. The judge said Green hadn't renounced or breached her obligations and was entitled to her $1 million fee. During the trial, the court was told that Green used an expletive when describing potential crew members as “peasants." She had said executive producer Jake Seal was “evil,” a “devious sociopath,” and a “mad man,” and dubbed production manager Terry Bird a “moron.” She downplayed her biting words as her “Frenchness."

(More actor stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X