Actress Eva Green tells court she would not make career-ending ‘B movie’ that was cutting corners on stunt safety

Eva Green arrives for her High Court legal action in London. Photo: Yui Mok/PA Wire

Michael Holden

January 30 2023 06:23 PM

Hollywood actress Eva Green, who is suing financiers for her fee for a failed film in which she was to star, has told a London court she would not make a career-ending "B movie" that she said was cutting corners in stunt safety and crew pay.

The French actress is suing White Lantern Films and SMC Speciality Finance for the $1m fee she says is owed over the collapse of the planned independent movie A Patriot, in which she was to play the lead role as a soldier.

The production company has launched a counter claim against Green for breach of contract, blaming her for the science fiction film's failure before it went into production in late 2019, saying she never intended for it to go ahead.

Giving evidence at the High Court in London today, Green (42) said she had become concerned the film's production team had been cutting corners, citing how her stunt training had been reduced from four weeks to five days.

This was "extremely dangerous for action films" she said, and referenced the fatal shooting in 2021 of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins for which actor Alec Baldwin is facing a charge of involuntary manslaughter.

"You look at what happened with Alec Baldwin on the movie Rust, the producers cutting corners, no safety measures and a young woman got killed," she told the court.

Baldwin has denied responsibility for the shooting, saying live ammunition should never have been allowed on the set and weapons handlers were responsible for firearm safety.

In its written submissions, White Lantern's lawyers said Green, also an executive producer in the project, had made unreasonable demands about crew, locations and equipment.

They cited WhatsApp messages from Green in which she described one producer as a "f***ing moron" who should be fired and another as "evil". She also described funders for the movie as "arseholes" and some proposed crew members as "s***ty peasants".

"I wanted to make the most brilliant film possible," Green told the court, agreeing with White Lantern's lawyer Max Mallin that making a "B movie" could kill her career.

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Asked by Mallin if the director had approached her to make a "B s***ty movie" - a reference to a text message she had sent about the film - for $1m, she said she would not.

Green, whose lawyers say has never breached a contract or missed a day's shooting in her 20-year career, said she could have ensured a quality film by getting a strong core crew but the producers had not wanted to pay standard industry rates.

"I didn't want to work with a substandard crew. I wanted to work with a high-quality crew who just wanted to be paid standard industry rates," Green told the court.

Green said the script for A Patriot had been one of the best she had read and she had fallen in love with the story: "It was about climate change, it was very dear to my heart."

The trial, which will conclude next week, will determine liability with any award settled at a later date.