Eva Green wanted to pretend she was in hospital with an all-body rash to avoid filming sci-fi movie, court told

The star of ‘Casino Royale’ is suing White Lantern Films over the demise of the film ‘A Patriot’

Eva Green wanted to pretend she was in hospital to get out of making a multimillion-pound sci-fi movie, the High Court has been told.

Further messages from the Casino Royale star have recently been disclosed as part of her legal battle with production company White Lantern Films over her planned starring role in the dystopian thriller A Patriot.

She had been due to appear in the movie alongside Charles Dance and Helen Hunt before production was shut down in October 2019.

The 42-year-old is suing the production company after the film was abandoned, claiming she is entitled to her million-dollar (£810,000) fee for the project despite its cancellation under the terms of their agreement.

White Lantern Films and lender SMC Speciality Finance are bringing a counterclaim against Green, alleging that she undermined the independent film’s production and renounced the contract.

Max Mallin KC, for White Lantern, said Green had shown a “categorical and unequivocal refusal to perform”.

On Tuesday (14 March), he said that she “was so concerned about what would happen if she were expressly called upon to perform” that she had suggested her agent Charles Collier “invent a story about Ms Green being hospitalised” in one of the recently shared messages.

The court was told the message from Green in September 2019 read: “If they come back to you and say they are going to go ahead with the movie, what can we say…?

“Could we say this situation has made me ill over the weekend? We could say I had to go to hospital as I had a serious rash all over my body?”

Green then asked her agent if a doctor would potentially help, the court was told.

In written submissions, Mallin added that Green also “appeared to contemplate faking a broken arm” to avoid performing.

The barrister said it was not up to 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 if Green had been called to perform “she would not have done the film”.

Eva Green (Reuters)

Mallin added in written submissions that most of Green’s evidence was “unconvincing and at times appeared to be rehearsed”.

Edmund Cullen KC, for Green, said the star had been subjected to a “character assassination”, adding it was “based on some of the cheapest and nastiest sorts of stereotypes around”.

He said the actor had been described as making excessive demands and going out of contact.

“These sorts of lies are very damaging and they need to be scotched,” Cullen said.

The barrister later said that White Lantern was “vomiting out” allegations that Green had breached her contract, none of which were true.

He added: “Green was overwhelmingly keen to provide her acting services to White Lantern for this film.”

Cullen said that Green did not renounce the contract and that witnesses for White Lantern and the lender “came here to deceive the court”.

He said in written arguments: “The highest that it goes is that Ms Green said, as she readily admitted, that working with [executive producer] Mr Seal ‘in control’ would be ‘impossible’.

“However, that is, of course, very far from a statement of a refusal to perform [the contract].”

The barrister added that Green was never given the opportunity to perform or not as she was never called upon.

The court previously saw WhatsApp exchanges showing Green variously calling Jake Seal, one of the film’s executive producers, “evil”, a “madman”, a “devious sociopath” and “pure vomit”.

She branded another executive producer, Terry Bird, a “f***ing moron”, concluding that both the men were “arseholes”.

The court heard that Green was unhappy with the film’s budget allegedly being half the figure she had been told.

She had also allegedly been granted “rights of approval” over the hiring of production staff, but when her specific requests were later denied, she wrote to her agent saying that she would be “obliged to take [the producer’s] s***ty peasant crew members from Hampshire”.

Justice Michael Green is due to give his decision in writing at a later date.

Additional reporting by Press Association