Eva Green said the fallout from the case “felt like being set upon by hounds”. Photo / Getty Images
Eva Green said the fallout from the case “felt like being set upon by hounds”. Photo / Getty Images
James Bond actress Eva Green has claimed “bully-boy” film executives regarded her behaviour on set as “female hysteria” after she won a High Court battle over an unfinished sci-fi film.
The Casino Royale star was due to appear in a £4 million (NZD$8.1 million) sci-fi film titled A Patriot, centred around themes of climate change and mass migration, before the project was abandoned in October 2019.
She sued White Lantern Film, a Dorset-based film company, claiming she was entitled to collect her $1 million (NZD$1.6 million) fee for the project despite its cancellation.
However, White Lantern Film and lender SMC Speciality Finance issued a counter-claim against Green, alleging she undermined the independent film’s production and renounced the contract.
Eva Green arrives at the Rolls Building, London, for her High Court legal action over payment for a shuttered film project. Photo / Getty Images
In a judgment on Friday, Justice Michael Green ruled in Green’s favour, agreeing that the collapse of the film was a “Shakespearean farce”. The judge said the 42-year-old was entitled to the full fee and dismissed the counter-claim.
In a strongly worded statement issued after the ruling, Green said: “I stood my ground, and this time, justice prevailed.”
“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.
“I am proud that I stood up against their bully-boy tactics. They made false allegations about me in public court documents which the judge has now shown are totally incorrect,” she said.
She said the fallout from the case “felt like being set upon by hounds” and claimed she was “misrepresented, quoted out of context” and that her “desire to make the best possible film was made to look like female hysteria”.
The actress sued production company White Lantern Films over the shuttered British film project A Patriot. Photo / Getty Images
Crew branded ‘s***** peasants’
During the trial in London earlier this year, the court heard messages in which the actress had described potential crew members as “s***** peasants”, the production as a “B******* movie” and executive producer Jake Seal as “pure vomit”.
In the further messages, Green is also said to have described Seal as a “sociopath” and “a real mad dictator who wants to prove he is right so he could be ready for anything”.
Max Mallin KC, for White Lantern, said Green had shown a “categorical and unequivocal refusal to perform” and repeatedly made “unreasonable demands”.
However, Edmund Cullen KC, for Green, said “this case is designed to paint my client as a diva to win headlines”, adding it was “based on some of the cheapest and nastiest sorts of stereotypes around”.
During her evidence, Green denied the allegations that she was not prepared to go ahead with the project, saying that she has “never broken a contract or even missed one day of shooting”, and insisted: “I have nothing against peasants, I just didn’t want to work with a sub-standard crew.”
‘Neither side prepared to make film’
In a 71-page judgment in the star’s favour, Justice Green said: “Green’s claim to the fee succeeds and I will make a declaration to that effect. I reject all the defendants’ defences to the claim.
“In particular, I find that Green did not renounce her obligations under the artist agreement; nor did she commit any repudiatory breaches of it.”
He said that while “she may have said some extremely unpleasant things about Seal and his crew at Black Hangar”, there was an “overinterpretation” of private messages in the case.
“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." Photo / WireImage
The judge added: “There was, indeed, much reference to Green’s private messages, and both sides were accusing each other of pretending to be in a position to make the film at the end of September 2019.”
“The reality is, however, that neither side was prepared to make the film that the other wanted to make - Green made it clear that she did not want to make the film under Seal’s full control, and the defendants were only interested in recovering SMC’s loan.”
White Lantern Film and SMC Speciality Finance said in a statement: “We are carefully considering our options as to potential next steps, including appeal.”
“The suggestion Eva Green has made today that this legal action was motivated by or represented gender-based bullying is completely unwarranted. It does not reflect the judgment in any way, nor the evidence that was heard at court.
“SMC has a long and proud record of financing and championing producers, directors, writers and acting talent of all genders, from Oscar winners to first-time female directors.”
