Harvey Weinstein’s crimes are not unknown to the world. The disgraced producer is currently doing time behind bars with two sentences of 23 years and 16 years that he has to serve separately. Given the fact that he is in his seventies, Harvey Weinstein is most likely to spend the rest of his life in jail.
It’s true that Harvey Weinstein was not a pleasant person to work with and actress Kate Winslet can vouch for this. She was one of the very first celebrities to have spoken up against Harvey Weinstein. Kate Winslet worked with the producer on the 2008 film, The Reader, and she once gave an account of all the inappropriate behavior that went on at the set of the film, including the harassment of its producer, owing to Harvey Weinstein.
Kate Winslet Bashes Harvey Weinstein’s Behaviour
In an interview with The Times, actress Kate Winslet opened up about how Harvey Weinstein unleashed hell on the set of The Reader. The film stars Ralph Fiennes, David Kross, Lena Olin, and more. While Winslet clarified that there wasn’t any s*xual misconduct, Weinstein’s behavior was just downright “disgraceful.”
“I can’t even begin to describe the disgraceful behavior that went on — and I’m actually not going to because it’s a can of worms that I’m not prepared to publicly open — nothing to do with sexual harassment, thankfully, lucky me. My god. I somehow dodged that bullet.”
Even though Winslet was unwilling to dive into an explanation, she did recall how Weinstein swooped in and pulled the plug on The Reader’s shoot four days prior to the actual date. Since this move canceled the filming of a few vital scenes in the story, Winslet did not hold back her words.
“We still had a full four days of shooting of very key scenes that for me — as a person playing that part — were absolutely crucial to the story and to [director] Stephen Daldry, they were as well. And Harvey just decided, ‘OK, we’re done. No more money. I’m pulling the plug.’ We had to stop and were sent home. That was it. And again, this is just on the business side of things, but he was always, always very, very, very unpleasant to deal with. Very.”
Winslet vowed to never work with Weinstein again, a promise she managed to actually keep. In fact, when she won an Oscar for her role in the film, the actress deliberately left out Weinstein’s name from her acceptance speech as a protest. Absolute boss move!
How Harvey Weinstein Harassed the Film’s Producer on His Deathbed
Oscar-winning director Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa) was part of the team of The Reader as its producer. Unfortunately, he passed away before the film could release in theatres. Another producer of the film, Anthony Minghella, too, passed away before the release.
Weinstein got into an argument with another of the film’s producers, Scott Rudin. According to Rudin, Weinstein forced director Stephen Daldry to rush the editing of the film so that it could be a contender for the 2008 Academy Awards. Daldry and Rudin weren’t willing to comply with Weinstein’s demand which escalated the squabble.
Coming back to Pollack and Minghella, a leaked e-mail from Rudin to Nikki Finke, a blogger, stated that in order to get his way, Weinstein pressurized Pollack while he was “on his deathbed.” The e-mail also mentioned how the disgraced producer harassed Minghella’s widowed wife for the same. Of course, he denied the allegations and stated that he’ll donate a million dollars to charity if found guilty.
You can stream The Reader on Prime Video.
Source: LA Times
