Eva Green portrayed as a “diva” amid failed production lawsuit
Penny Dreadful star Eva Green is involved in a legal battle over a the collapse of a film project that cost in excess of $4million. The case situates the actor as a “diva”, an alleged attempt to ruin her reputation.
Messenger Newspaper reports that Green was due to star in A Patriot, a sci-fi film produced by White Lantern Films, who she is now suing for her ‘entitled’ salary of £810,000, despite the project being cancelled.
The company defended the case and counterclaimed the actor made “unreasonable demands” and undermined the production. At the beginning of the eight-day trial, barrister Edmund Cullen KC spoke to the court and claimed Green wanted the film to be made, but “the financial plan was never going to work”.
“This was, for her, a passion project. The theme of the film concerns an issue of great concern to her, namely the climate catastrophe,” he continued. “She loved the script and wanted the film to be made, she bent over backwards to get this done.”
White Lantern Films’ lawyers wrote in their defence that the actor exercised “a lack of confidence and dissatisfaction” with some of the production crew, calling an executive producer Jake Seal a “moron” in an obtained message.
Additional messages from Green about Seal cited him as “evil”, a “devious sociopath”, and “a liar and a mad man”. There are further claims she called Terry Bird, the production manager, a “total arsehole”.
Cullen responded to these claims, stating: “This case is designed to paint my client as a diva to win headlines and damage her reputation”. The barrister added how he found it “really extraordinary” that the actor is dealing with a case that “she was somehow trying to undermine the project all along by making unreasonable demands”.
Cullen continued: “She repeatedly agreed to postpone the start of principal photography. She agreed to the move of the production from Ireland to the UK. She made repeated offers to use part of her fee to fund the production costs.”
A written submission showcases Cullen’s claim that the company’s defence was “an artificial construct which bears no reality to the factual and legal position as it existed at the time”.
“It seems to be designed to blacken the name of an actor who has not breached a contract or missed a day’s shooting in a career spanning 20 years,” he added. “They are, in essence, an informal venting of a stream of consciousness as events unfolded.”
Last year, Green made headlines concerning a legal battle in the entertainment industry when she voiced support for Johnny Depp in his defamation case against Amber Heard, a case which negotiated the stance all women should be believed.
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