JAMES Bond star Eva Green on Friday won a court case in the UK over her US$1 million (RM4.46 million) acting fee for the never-made science fiction film ‘A Patriot’.
The French actress had sued UK-based production company White Lantern Film at the High Court in London for the fee but the firm countersued, saying she derailed the £4 million project by making "unreasonable demands".
Judge Michael Green ruled the 42-year-old actress was entitled to the sum and dismissed the counter-claim.
"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," the judge said.
Green, famous for her role as Vesper Lynd in 2006 Bond film ‘Casino Royale’, was due to play a soldier.
She signed up to the project in 2018, but became increasingly uneasy as funding issues meant that UK producer Jake Seal began to assume more control.
The star attended a trial in January, where messages between her and production staff were read out.
At one point, she blamed her "Frenchness" for calling a film director "weak and stupid" and accusing him of making a cheap "B shitty movie".
Max Mallin, lawyer for White Lantern, said Green had shown a "categorical and unequivocal refusal to perform" and repeatedly made "unreasonable demands".
"I don't care about the money. I live to make good films. It's my religion," Green had told the court.
Green was also angry that production was shifting from Ireland to Black Hangar studios in southern England.
"I need my team around me so that I can handle anything evil Jake (Seal) throws at me", she messaged her agent.
"My team will have to pull out and I will be obliged to take his shitty peasant crew members" from nearby Hampshire, she added.
Green claims that she was not given enough training for the role and accused the producers of "cutting corners".
"Look at what happened with Alec Baldwin on the movie 'Rust'," she told the court.
"Producers cutting corners, no safety measures in place, and a young woman got killed."
In a social media post today, Green expressed her gratitude to the court, judge, her legal team and her "valiant agent".
"My professional reputation has been upheld. The Judge has found that I was never in breach of my contractual obligations," she wrote.
"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 for their own mistakes."
Green also poured scorn on what she called "the deliberate misreporting by some of the press."
She said certain media re-printed false allegations about her in public court documents without fact-checking.
"It felt like I was set upon by hounds; I found myself misrepresented, quoted out of context and my desire to make the best possible film made to look like female hysteria." – Agencies, April 28, 2023
