French actor Eva Green has triumphed in a legal battle against the financiers of a failed sci-fi film, with London’s High Court awarding her the $1 million fee she said she had been promised.
Green sued White Lantern Films and SMC Specialty Finance for the fee after the proposed movie, “A Patriot,” collapsed in 2019, according to The Guardian.
She said she loved the environmental message of the film but grew concerned after the budget was slashed — from €10M ($10.8 million) to half that amount, per Deadline — and corners were cut.
“When an actor has appeared in a B movie, they are labeled as a B actor,” Green testified, per The Associated Press. “You never get offered quality work ever again.”
Meanwhile, a countersuit alleged that Green pulled out of the movie and breached her contract. The court also heard that Green called potential crew members “peasants,” deemed production manager Terry Bird a “moron,” and labeled executive producer Jake Seal “evil,” a “devious sociopath,” and a “mad man.”
On Friday, Judge Michael Green of the High Court sided with Green, declaring that the 42-year-old “did not renounce her obligations under the artist agreement” for “A Patriot,” nor did she “commit any repudiatory breaches of it.”
In his ruling, however, the judge had some notes for Green. “For such a perfectionist in her art, she was surprisingly under-prepared for her evidence,” he wrote. He also said the “Casino Royale” star is, “in some senses, a frustrating and unsatisfactory witness.”
But the judge also said he could “see how it might be possible to take an instant dislike” to executive producer Seal. “He was at times patronizing, sarcastic and denigrating,” he wrote. “I found him to have an innate aggression and can understand why Ms. Green and others might have been displeased to be told that they had to make the film under his full control.”
In a statement on Instagram on Friday, the actor expressed gratitude to the court, the judge, her legal team and her agent. “In this legal action, I was forced to stand up to a small group of men, funded by deep financial resources, who tried to use me as a scapegoat to cover up their own mistakes,” she wrote. “I am proud that I stood up against their bully-boy tactics.”
“There are few things the media enjoys more than tearing a woman to pieces,” she added. “It felt like being set upon by hounds; I found myself misrepresented, quoted out of context and my desire to make the best possible film was made to look like female hysteria. It was cruel and it was untrue. … I fought tooth and nail to defend the beautiful film that I loved and had signed on for. A film that spoke of a cause I hold dear — climate change — and warned of the resource wars and mass migration that would occur if we don’t address the problem. I stood my ground, and this time, justice prevailed.