Ana De Armas Fans Sue Universal For $5 Million After Spending $3.99 On Movie She Wasn't In
Fans of Ana de Armas have filed a lawsuit against Universal after they rented a movie to see the star, only to find her scene had been cut.
The actor was cast in the 2019 flick Yesterday, where she played a love interest for the movie’s lead Jack Malik, played by Himesh Patel.
However, de Armas’ scene - in which she appeared as a guest alongside Jack on The Late Late Show with James Corden - was cut from the final movie.
Despite not appearing in the film, de Armas does still feature in the trailer and it was this that led to two of her fans being disappointed.
After spotting the star in the trailer, Conor Woulfe and Peter Rosza each rented Yesterday on Amazon Prime for $3.99 (£2.94), the BBC reports.
But of course, when they sat down to watch the film, de Armas didn’t appear.
They have since decided to launch a class action suit against Universal claiming that the studio had used deceptive marketing and are seeking a whopping $5 million (£3.6m) in damages on behalf of California and Maryland residents who watched the movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The lawsuit states: “Because consumers were promised a movie with Ana de Armas by the trailer for Yesterday but did not receive a movie with any appearance of Ana de Armas at all, such consumers were not provided with any value for their rental or purchase.”
The suit goes on to heap praise on the actor, continuing: “Unable to rely on fame of the actors playing Jack Malik or Ellie to maximise ticket and movie sales and rentals, Defendant consequently used Ms. de Armas’ fame, radiance, and brilliance to promote the film by including her scenes in the movie trailers advertising Yesterday.”
It added: "Although defendant included the scenes with Ms de Armas in the movie trailer advertisements, for the purposes of promoting Yesterday and enticing film sales and rentals, Ms de Armas is not and was never in the publicly released version of the movie.”
Screenwriter Richard Curtis has previously said it was ‘very traumatic’ to have to cut de Armas’ scene as she was ‘brilliant’.
He told Cinemablend that audiences at test screenings didn't react well to Jack's wandering eye when he meets de Armas' character in LA.
He said: "I think the audience did not like the fact that his eyes even strayed. Because then some people would go, ‘Oh, he really doesn’t deserve her. He really doesn’t deserve Lily.’
"You know, it’s one of those things where it’s some of our favorite scenes from the film, but we had to cut them for the sake of the whole."
Universal is yet to comment on the case.
Topics: TV and Film
Claire Reid