French actress Eva Green tells UK court ‘B movie’ could have wrecked her career

Actress Eva Green arrives at the High Court in London on Monday. Photo / AP

Actress Eva Green has told a British court she grew disillusioned with a film project because it was becoming a “B movie” that could ruin her career.

The French actress is suing producers for a $1 million fee she says she is owed for “A Patriot,” a sci-fi thriller that collapsed in late 2019. Production company White Lantern Film is countersuing, claiming Green made “excessive creative and financial” demands and undermined the production.

Green, who played Vesper Lynd in James Bond thriller Casino Royale, said she “fell in love” with the script for A Patriot and its environmental message, but became increasingly concerned as producers moved production from Ireland to England and cut other corners.

Eva Green and Eve Hewson in The Luminaries. Photo / Supplied.

“When an actor has appeared in a B movie they are labelled as a B actor, you never get offered quality work ever again,” she said during an evidence session at the High Court in London.

“I never wanted this to be a B movie but I realised more towards the end that it was going to happen,” she added.

Green, 42, also raised safety concerns, referring to the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins when a prop gun was discharged on the set of the movie Rust. Actor Alec Baldwin and the film’s weapons supervisor face involuntary manslaughter charges over the 2021 incident.

Green said executive producer Jake Seal had cut down her stunt training on A Patriot – in which she was due to play a soldier — from four weeks to five days, something she claimed was “extremely dangerous”.

“You can’t make a quality film by cutting corners,” Green said. “You look at what happened with Alec Baldwin on the movie Rust, the producers were cutting corners, no safety measures and a young woman got killed.”

The production company’s evidence includes expletive-filled text messages in which Green called one of the film’s producers “evil” and another a “pretentious moron”.

Green apologised for “some horrible things” she had said in messages. She said the tone of the messages was “an emotional response” because she felt betrayed.

“It’s my Frenchness coming out sometimes,” she said.

Green denies producers’ allegations that she breached her contract, saying she was still prepared to go ahead with filming when the project was scrapped.

The case is due to continue for several days.