Conor Woulfe and Peter Michael Rosza file a lawsuit against the entertainment company as they accuse it of engaging in 'false, deceptive and misleading advertising.'
- January 23, 2022
AceShowbiz - Ana de Armas' fans have launched legal action against Universal. Two men are reportedly suing the company after the actress got cut from "Yesterday" despite appearing in its trailer.
Filing the lawsuit were Conor Woulfe and Peter Michael Rosza. It was reported that they each paid $3.99 to rent the movie on Amazon Prime, only to find out that Ana didn't make it to the final cut of the 2019 flick.
"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," so read the lawsuit.
In the suit, the plaintiffs described Ana as "a talented, successful, and famous actress" and claimed that her fame was the only way the musical rom-com was marketed. "The principal actors in the movie Yesterday were largely unknown before the film was released," they argued.
"For example, the actor which played protagonist Malik, Himesh Patel, had never acted or starred in a film prior to Yesterday. Similarly, the actress who played Ellie, Lily James, was a relatively unknown name to the casual movie watcher," they further alleged. "Consequently, because none of the Yesterday film leads were famous, Defendant could not rely on their fame to promote the movie to entice viewership."
Both Conor and Peter accused Universal of engaging in "false, deceptive and misleading advertising." They are now demanding for $5 million to be restored to customers who were similarly misled.
Ana was set to appear as Roxane, a love interest who is introduced to Himesh's character Malik on the set of James Corden's talk show. However, her scene was cut because the audience allegedly wanted Malik to be together with Lily's Ellie.
"That was a very traumatic cut, because she was brilliant in it. I mean really radiant," screenwriter Richard Curtis told Cinema Blend about the removal. "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."
