How Eva Green ends up in court to get a million dollar paycheck

French actress Eva Green finds herself at the heart of a legal battle in the United Kingdom to claim her fee despite the cancellation of a film, her lawyer believing Thursday that the production company is trying to pass her off as a “diva“. The 42-year-old French actress, star of Casino Royale in 2006, was to star in a science fiction film –A Patriot– before production was finally halted in October 2019.

She is suing the production company, White Lantern Films, to claim her one million dollar (918,000 euros) fee for the film, despite its cancellation. But the British production company decided to counterattack by launching its own lawsuits against the actress, believing that she had made “unreasonable demandsand harmed the production of the film.

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The trial, which began on Thursday, is expected to last eight days. Eva Green is expected to take the stand on Monday. The actress’ lawyer, Edmund Cullen, told the judges that Eva Green “bent over backwardsfor the project to happen because it dealt with a “issue of great concern to her, namely the climate catastrophe“.

But the lawyers of White Lantern Films consider on the contrary that the French actress expressedlack of confidence and dissatisfactiontowards members of the production team. She was “increasingly reluctant to get involvedin breach of contract. Eva Green had “a vitriolic aversion to making the movie that White Lantern could and was going to make“, declared for the production the lawyer Max Mallin. There was, he said, asplit between Eva Green’s expectations and what movie she wanted to make and what the budget allowed“.

The production tips substantiate their accusations based on WhatsApp messages in which Eva Green allegedly referred to a crew member as “diabolical“, of “sneaky sociopath“, of “liar and crazy“. She also reportedly called production manager Terry Bird a “dumbass” and of “asshole finished“. Messages that must be read in the context of negotiations for the purchase of the rights to the script to make a different film, assured his lawyer.

“This case is designed to portray my client as a diva in order to make headlines and damage her reputation.Mr. Cullen argued, calling it “extraordinarythe charges against Eva Green. “She agreed several times to postpone the start of the shooting. She agreed to have the production moved from Ireland to the UK. She has repeatedly offered to use part of her fees to fund production costs.“, he listed in his written submissions. For him, White Lantern Films wants “blacken name of actress who hasn’t breached a contract or missed a day on set in a 20-year career“.

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