French actress Eva Green is in luck. The actress has won the lawsuit she was having with a production company in the British High Court to collect her salary for a science fiction film that was never finished.
The star of films such as Miss Peregrine's Home has thus won a legal battle that began last January, in which she demanded that the production company White Lantern Film collect the million dollars (about 910,740 euros, at the current exchange rate) stipulated in her contract, something that the company refused to do, alleging that Green had "undermined" the production and waived her salary.
Judge Michael Green, of the High Court, understood in his ruling published today that the French actress had the right to collect what was stipulated in her contract, thus rejecting the argument of the production company and its financial agents, who tried to evade that payment.
"I find that Green did not waive her obligations under the production agreement or incur any breach," the judge said, ruling in favor of the actress.
The production company said the actress's expectations for the film were "incompatible with its budget."
The ruling follows that trial last January, in which various private messages were released, in which the actress described the film crew as "shitty peasants," the production as a "shitty B movie" and executive producer Jake Seal as "pure vomit," as well as a "sociopath" and "crazy dictator." The production company ruled that her "unreasonable demands" were what "undermined" the filming process.
However, the judge found quite the opposite, even describing the actress: "There is no doubt that Ms. Green made no conclusive decision or statement that she would not fulfill her obligations under the artist agreement," he insisted, "Nor could anyone have reasonably understood her to have made such a decision."
The production company's lawyers said that the actress had shown "a categorical and unequivocal refusal" to act in the production.
Despite this, the judge found that Green had not violated the terms of the contract to participate in the film A Patriot, which was abandoned in October 2019.
"She may have said some extremely unpleasant things about Seal and his team, but that was born out of a feeling of genuine concern that any film made under Seal's control would be of very low quality and would not do justice to a script that she was passionate about," he added.
In a statement after learning of the decision, the actress said that "justice has prevailed," after having "defended tooth and nail the beautiful film that I loved and for which I signed on."
"The film spoke of a cause that is dear to me, climate change, and warned of the wars over resources that will take place if we do not address the problem. I stood firm, and this time justice has prevailed," she said.
