Ana de Armas Fan Lawsuit About Deceitful Trailer Allowed to Proceed

Back in January it was revealed that two fans of actress Ana de Armas were filing a lawsuit against Universal Pictures, alleging that her image being used in the trailer for the 2019 movie Yesterday, from which she had been cut, tricked them into renting the movie. According to Variety, the studio attempted to have the lawsuit thrown out on the grounds that the trailer for the movie is an “artistic, expressive work,” something that U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson didn’t buy. As reported by the trade, Universal’s trailer for Yesterday is actually defined as “commercial speech” by the judge, and could fall under California False Adverting Law. In short, the class-action lawsuit surrounding the trailer for the Beatles-centric movie will move toward a trial.

“Universal is correct that trailers involve some creativity and editorial discretion, but this creativity does not outweigh the commercial nature of a trailer,” Wilson wrote in a ruling. “At its core, a trailer is an advertisement designed to sell a movie by providing consumers with a preview of the movie.” Universal argued that classifying movie trailers as “commercial speech” could leave them, and others in Hollywood, open to lawsuits from disgruntled movie goers. Fans may recall previously the threat of a lawsuit across the pond by a Suicide Squad audience member that believed Jared Leto’s Joker would have a more prominent role. 

The judge addressed the studio’s concern that they could be subject to even more lawsuits if this ruling were to be made, noting that false advertising laws only apply when a “significant portion” of the audience might be mislead by the advertising. He adds: “The Court’s holding is limited to representations as to whether an actress or scene is in the movie, and nothing else.” Where this kind of ruling could become problematic however is that oftentimes the marketing materials draw from pieces of a movie that aren’t even going to make the final cut, something Shazam! Fury of the Gods director David F. Sandberg previously addressed about the upcoming DC movie.

The original lawsuit, filed by Conor Woulfe of Maryland and Peter Michael Rosza of California, claimed that they rented Yesterday after seeing a trailer for the Beatles-centric movie that included de Armas. They claim that the trailer led them to believe the No Time to Die star played a significant role in the film, only to watch the movie and discover that de Armas’ scenes didn’t make the final cut. The rentals cost the plaintiffs $3.99 each at the time of viewing.

Yesterday screenwriter Richard Curtis previously confirmed that de Armas’ character was previously set to be a major part of the film’s plot, making up one part of the film’s love triangle.

“That was a very traumatic cut, because she was brilliant in it. I mean really radiant,” Curtis revealed to Cinema Blend at the time of the movie’s released “And [that] turned out to be the problem. … I think the audience likes the story [about Ellie and Jack] and goes with that, and it works out well. What we’d originally done was had, I don’t want to describe it too much, but had Ana De Armas as a complicating factor when he arrived in L.A. for the first time. And 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.”