Paz de la Huerta, who most famously starred in Enter the Void and Boardwalk Empire, also (perhaps least famously) appeared in the film Nurse 3D, which Rogerebert.com writer Peter Sobczynski dubbed “ridiculously lurid trash.” Now, de la Huerta is alleging that the film ruined her career — in a $55 million lawsuit against its makers.
Nurse 3D, about a nurse who murders (in 3D!), allegedly had a $10 million budget and apparently was not expected by its distributors to become a major hit (fancy that). It thus received a very limited release, and grossed virtually nothing in its theatrical run.
De la Huerta claims to have made $2 million yearly before her turn as the sexy nurse who kills using a melange of methods, including poisoning, baseball bat-bludgeoning, and good, old-fashioned neck-and-femoral artery stabbing. Apart from her claim that the film qualitatively damaged her career, de la Huerta alleges that she suffered a spinal fracture while filming an ambulance scene. For this, she’d filed a worker’s comp claim, which led the director (Doug Aarniokoski) to bring in another actress to dub that scene and a couple of others. De la Huerta blames negative reviews of her acting in the film on this particular choice; apart from the $55 million, the suit also asks that the film be re-dubbed using De la Huerta’s voice — because surely that’ll save it.