[News] Actress Eva Green wins multimillion-pound court battle against Hollywood company bosses who accused her of sabotaging sci-fi film and calling crew members ‘s****y peasants’

The 42-year-old actress sued the filmmakers of the £4.6million movie, claiming she was entitled to her million-dollar (£810,000) fee under the terms of her contract agreement.But White Lantern Film and lender SMC Specialty Finance brought a counterclaim against Ms. Green, alleging she had undermined the production and relinquished her contract.

 

Justice Michael Green however, announced the actress’ victory this morning at the High Court of Justice in London, ruling she was entitled to the fee, and dismissed the counter-claim.

 

The judge said: ‘In particular, I find that Ms Green did not renounce her obligations under the artist agreement; nor did she commit any repudiatory breaches of it.’Throughout the 71-page judgement in Eva Green’s favour, Mr. Justice Michael Green said there was ‘overinterpretation’ of private messages throughout the case.

He said: ‘There was, indeed, much reference to Ms 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: Ms Green made it clear that she did not want to make the film under Mr Seal’s full control; and the defendants were only interested in recovering SMC’s

Mr. Justice Green added: ‘The case is relatively straightforward, it seems to me, both factually and legally – there was little dispute on the law – but it has been complicated by convoluted and overtechnical theories as to what happened and the purportedly malign strategies being adopted by the other side at the time.

 

‘In my view, there has also been an overinterpretation of the recordings’ transcripts and private messages.’

 

The bitter legal battle saw both sides throwing around a number of claims during a high-profile trial in London earlier this year.

 

The 007 stars representation, Edward Cullen KC, told the court that the actress had been subjected to a ‘character assassination’ adding that it was ‘based on some of the cheapest and nastiest sorts of stereotypes around’.

 

The court heard the actress had described crew members as ‘s****y peasants’ and labelled the production as a ‘B-s****y-movie’.

 

The trial was also told that the actress branded the executive producer Jake Seal as ‘pure vomit’, ‘evil’ and a ‘devious sociopath’.

Mr Seal, who owns Black Hangar Studios in Hampshire, told the court in a witness statement he had no idea the actress ‘had all this vitriol towards’ him.

His barrister, reading the statement on the producer’s behalf, said: ‘I only met Ms Green face-to-face on one occasion at a meeting attended by her, the former directors, and Mr. Harry Boyd.

 

‘Other than that meeting, I only ever communicated with her via email.’

During two days of cross-examination, Ms. Green told the judge that she had a ‘very direct way of saying things’ and blamed her ‘Frenchness coming out’.

 

She said at the time: ‘Sometimes I say emotional things I don’t really mean. Of course, they are not weak and stupid.’

‘It was my emotions speaking,’ she added.

 

The French actress also said she was not called to the studio for rehearsals or stunt training, describing it as ‘so strange’ and later ‘absurd with a capital A’.

 

She said: ‘If I had been called to set, I would have done this film even though it would have been a disaster.’

 

‘In the 20 years that I have been making films, I have never broken a contract or even missed one day of shooting,’ the actress added.

 

Ms denied any responsibility for the botched film, telling the court: ‘I didn’t have to do anything to make the film fail… they made it fail on their own with their incompetence.’

 

Max Mallin KC, representing White Lantern, said Ms. Green had shown a ‘categorical and unequivocal refusal to perform’.

 

The production company also claimed that she made ‘excessive creative and financial demands’ and had expectations that were ‘incompatible’ with the film’s low budget.

 

Mr. Mallin said it was not up to Ms. Green whether or not she was called to set, adding: ‘What is within her control is whether she responds to that call or not and, in my submission, she is making quite clear that she was not.’

 

He added that she ‘was so concerned about what would happen if she were expressly called upon to perform’ that she had suggested her agent ‘invent a story about Ms Green being hospitalised’.