Hollywood star Eva Green says she has been humiliated by the release of private WhatsApp messages where she called producers “evil” and “morons” during a doomed 2019 film project.
The actress, 42, is giving evidence in the High Court over the 2019 collapse of sci-fi thriller A Patriot, amid funding difficulties and an acrimonious falling-out with financial backers.
In messages released during legal proceedings, Green referred to crew members in Hampshire as “shitty peasants”, called the film’s director “weak and stupid”, and referred to herself as “Cruella”.
Green faced questions on Tuesday about a message when she called the film a “f***ing nightmare” and told an associate: “We had to get out”.
Green insists she did not sabotage production of A Patriot or walk out on the film, and told the court: “I have a very direct way of saying things.
“I was not expecting to have my WhatsApp messages exposed in court. It’s already very humiliating.”
In her private messages, Green referred to executive producer Jake Seal as the “Devil” and discussed with associates the possibility of buying the rights to the film script to make it herself, with her own crew.
Asked if she was lying about an intention to “get out” of the film, Green referenced a notorious incident involving her Casino Royale co-star Daniel Craig, when in 2021 he was asked about continuing in the James Bond franchise he replied: “I’d rather break this glass and slash my wrists.”
Green told the court: “Sometimes you say things you don’t mean. You hate someone, you say ‘I’m going to kill this person’. Are you going to kill this person? No.
“It’s a cry from the heart.
“There’s a famous example of Daniel Craig saying he would rather slash my wrists than do another Bond movie.
“He did honour his contract, he did another Bond movie, he didn’t slash his wrists.
Sometimes you say things under extreme pressure, and it just comes out.”
When it was suggested Green had plucked the Daniel Craig reference from the witness statement of her agent, Charles Collier, she drew laughter in court by quickly replying: “I know this story very well because I know Daniel.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Green said she wanted production on the “chaotic” film to collapse so she would have chance to seize control of the film.
But she insisted she did not cause its downfall or had tried to “make the film fail”.
“I didn’t do anything to make the film fail”, she said.
“I feel they made it fail on their own, by their own incompetence. Nothing was ready. Nothing was in place. It was a charade.”
Faced with a message in which she had declared “I CANNOT make this film with (financiers) Sherbourne. IMPOSSIBLE”, Green said: “These are emotional words, I felt trapped at the time, it didn’t make any sense that the film was going to happen.
“I just felt cornered.”
But she went on to say: “It doesn’t mean I wasn’t going to honour my contract. If called to set, I would have done this movie, even though it would have been a disaster.
“I have never broken a contract, I had to do it.”
When funding for the film was in doubt, Green texted the director to say: “Let’s hope we get the f*** out of his [Mr Seal’s] evil claws and re-locate to Scotland and shoot in November.”
Pressed on the comment, Green accepted it was her preferred option for the planned production to collapse, giving her an opportunity to buy out rights to the script. But she insisted she had not caused production to fail, and had been ready to honour her commitment to the film.
“It’s true I was worried about the whole situation, I felt the movie was not in safe hands,” she said. “It was so chaotic. I still believed in the movie and I still wanted the movie to happen.”
Pressed on whether collapse of the production would have been her “preferred option”, Green said: “It’s true, but I didn’t provoke anything — it just happened.”
Green originally launched the legal battle in a bid to recover her $1m (£830,000) fee from A Patriot. But she has been countersued over claims she walked off production in breach of her deal and deliberately sabotaged the film.
Green originally joined A Patriot to star alongside Kathy Bates and Tim Robbins, and told the court she “fell in love with the script”. Production stalled but was revived in summer 2019. She said she was “shocked and upset” when a plan to film in Ireland fell through amid funding difficulties, and production was shifted to Mr Seal’s studios in Hampshire.
Green is accused of pretending to be ready to make the movie while plotting its downfall, but she said that did not make sense. In her evidence this morning, Green said the collapse of the film was “confirmation there was something wrong with this production”.
She is up against production company White Lantern Film (Britannica) Limited and financiers SMC Specialty Finance LLC. The trial continues.
