The interpreter of The Nun files a complaint against Warner Bros for breach of his contract

Bonnie Aarons should have received a percentage on her merchandise, but the studio would have undervalued their sale.

Since she appeared in Conjuring 2in 2016, The Nun has steadily grown in importance over the course of the saga. A demonic figure named Valak, she is more or less central in the horror films produced at low cost for Warner Bros., and has two films in her name: a first released in 2018 and a suite which should hit the screens soon.

It is Bonnie Aaronsan angular-faced actress who also played creepy creatures in To hell Or Mulholland Drive, who has been playing it for six years. With a thick layer of makeup, even if we recognize her features when she plays the Nun: this is also an element that is highlighted in the complaint that she has just filed in Los Angeles against Warner Bros. New Line Cinema and Scope Productions.

First appearance of The Nun, at the heart of a painting from Conjuring 2: The Enfield Case, in 2016.

In this document relayed by The Guardian, Aarons accuses the production of not having paid him certain sums stipulated in his contract. Explaining having received 71,500 dollars to embody The Nun in the first solo film, plus 175,000 bonuses when the film hit the big screen – it earned 365 million worldwide for 22 million budget – she explains in her complaint that she also should have earned between 5% and 50% of the film’s merchandise sales. More precisely on all those on which his face appears.

Which represents a lot of objects: posters of the film, t-shirts, cups, toys, dolls bearing his image, pins, socks, sheets, Halloween costumes… Depending on the merchandising , her percentage differs, but she explains that between 2019 and 2022, she received a tiny sum related to the sale of derivative products stamped “The Nun”.

She writes in her complaint that she was “inconsistent compared to all the merchandising that exists.” She then asked for details from Warner Bros, who would have sent her a list of the items sold, which she considers to have been undervalued. “On these lines, there was only a fraction of the truly sold derivatives”she says.

His lawyers add: “Instead of paying her as planned with transparency, Warner Bros hid part of the sales from Madame Aarons, when they were contractually bound to share their earnings with her. They exploited her in this way.” Considering this to be a dishonest breach of contract, they point out that the importance of their client is “undeniable” in the success of this franchise, since her face is at the heart of the promotion of the films, and she does not wear prostheses or CGI additions. Simply makeup accentuating her whiteness and exaggerating the darkness of her orbits and around her lips, as well as contact lenses to change the color of her eyes.

The complaint also recalls that in seven films (they also count the spin-offs on the evil Annabelle doll, but not the Insidiousneither La Llorona), the saga Conjuring grossed over $2 billion at the box office. The amount claimed in connection with this complaint has not been disclosed.

Directed by Michael Chaves, The Nun 2 is due out in cinemas in September: the 8th in the United States and the 13th in France. Here is its trailer:

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