Universal Hit With Lawsuit Over Ana De Armas and ‘Yesterday’ Deleted Scene

Fans of the 2019 film Yesterday are fed up with Universal Studios for their “deceptive, and misleading advertising” for the film. Is it due to the film’s insistence that Himesh Patel’s displaced musician may have outsmarted the Beatles? Not at all. In fact, the lawsuit itself has little to do with the music of the Fab Four.

Instead, it involves one of the many famous names in the film, or at least one that was meant to be in the film.  According to Deadline, Conor Woulfe and Peter Michael Rosza felt that Universal used tricks and misleading trailers for the film using “world famous actress Ana De Armas” to sell the film.

“Among other deceptions, Defendant’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,” the lawsuit reads according to the outlet. “Defendant’s movie Yesterday, however, fails to include any appearance of Ana De Armas whatsoever. Accordingly, Defendant’s advertising and promotion of the movie Yesterday is false, misleading, and deceptive.”

According to Deadline, De Armas’ scene was cut from the film after the audience reaction came in before the premiere. According to screenwriter Richard Curtis, she played an actress that becomes attracted to Patel’s Jack, which didn’t sit well with audiences already invested in the character’s relationship with Lily James’ Ellie.

“[The film used] Ana De Armas as a complicating factor when he [Jack] 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,” Curtis explains.

De Armas does appear in the trailer for the film, comprising 10 seconds in the three-minute trailer, according to Deadline. That is where the “misleading advertising” comes into play with the lawsuit, which also contends that Universal wanted to leverage De Armas’ fame in the wake of her roles in Knives Out and Blade Runner 2049 in 2017 and 2019 respectively.

The class action suit against Universal seeks to obtain “all money obtained from Plaintiff and the other members of the Class collected as a result of Defendant’s unfair competition, and for an injunction prohibiting Defendant from continuing and further engaging in its unlawful, unfair and fraudulent conduct, requiring corrective advertising, and awarding all other relief this Court deems appropriate,” the suit reads according to Deadline. While the lawsuit seeks $5 million in total, the maximum payment from the suit would be $3.99, the cost of the rental for the film.