Why she had to go, we don’t know: fans sue over character cut from Beatles film
THE plot of Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis’s film Yesterday rests on the engaging premise of a universe in which The Beatles never existed.
Now two cinema fans are suing the makers of the film because their favourite actress was wiped from its storyline, as if – like the Fab Four – she had never been.
In the film, the British actor Himesh Patel plays Jack Malik, who, following a collision with a bus, wakes to find he is the only person on Earth who remembers The Beatles. By reintroducing the world to the band’s songs – and effectively claiming credit for the genius of the band – Malik shoots to stardom.
Ana de Armas was lined up to play the central character’s US love interest, with all her scenes filmed and her appearance even promoted in the film’s trailer.
But when Conor Woulfe and Peter Rosza rented Yesterday on Amazon Prime, on what they claim was the basis of De Armas’s promised role, they discovered her entire part had been left on the cutting room floor.
The pair are now claiming the makers of Yesterday, Universal Pictures, engaged in “deceptive marketing” and are suing the film giant for $5 million. The pair say they are bringing the case on behalf of other disgruntled film fans annoyed at the erasure of the CubanSpanish actress.
In legal documents filed with the US district court in California, Mr Woulfe, from Maryland, and Mr Rosza, from San Diego, claim that Universal’s “nationwide advertising and promotion of the movie Yesterday represents to prospective movie viewers that the world famous actress Ana de Armas has a substantial character role in the film”.
De Armas – who starred in Knives Out and No Time to Die – was to appear as Roxanne, who is introduced to Malik on the set of James Corden’s talk show, where he serenades her. However, preview audiences disliked the notion of Malik straying from his girlfriend back in Britain, so she was left out.
Curtis said after the film’s release: “That was a very traumatic cut, because she was brilliant in it. I mean really radiant.” Universal Pictures declined to comment.