Two fans are so enamored with actress Ana de Armas that they sued Universal Pictures for cutting her out of the 2019 film Yesterday but keeping her in the trailer, Variety reports. The loyal fans rented Yesterday for $3.99 each on Amazon Prime and were livid that de Armas didn’t appear in the final cut of the movie, despite being visible in the movie trailer for about 10 seconds, per Deadline. Hence, the fans accuse Universal of deceptive marketing. Peter Michael Rosza, 44, of California and Conor Woulfe, 38, of Maryland seek $5 million in damages for affected consumers as part of their class action suit.
The lawsuit alleges that Universal promised a film with de Armas via its trailer, and when it failed to deliver that, "consumers were not provided with any value for their rental or purchase." Rosza and Woulfe accuse Universal of deliberately keeping de Armas in the trailer despite her ultimate absence from the film to trick fans, because lead actors Lily James and Hamesh Patel are each "a relatively unknown name to the casual movie watcher." (Deadline takes issue with that point, noting James has had prominent roles in multiple movies and TV shows, including Downton Abbey.)
In Yesterday, Jack (Patel) is the only living person who remembers the Beatles and ends up becoming a star by performing their songs. De Armas played a woman with whom Jack shares a powerful attraction, but movie executives decided to cut the scenes because Jack is in a relationship with Ellie (James) and test audiences did not like the flirtation between de Armas’ and Patel’s characters. "That was a very traumatic cut, because she was brilliant in it. I mean really radiant," screenwriter Richard Curtis said in a 2019 interview with Cinemablend. "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.” The viability of the lawsuit is uncertain, as a similar complaint was dismissed over the trailer of the 2011 film Drive, according to Variety. (More Hollywood stories.)
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