After Peter Jackson revealed yesterday that Bob and Harvey Weinstein steered him away from casting actresses Mira Sorvino and Ashley Judd in Lord Of The Rings, another director has come forward with a story about similar blacklisting tactics from the brothers.
Terry Zwigoff, who made the 2003 film Bad Santa, said overnight that he was potentially looking to cast Sorvino in a key role, but that he was prevented from doing so by the Weinsteins, who were then in charge of production house Miramax.
The director took to Twitter to apologise to the actress, saying:
“I was interested in casting Mira Sorvino in Bad Santa, but every time I mentioned her over the phone to the Weinsteins, I’d hear a CLICK. What type of person just hangs up on you like that?! I guess we all know what type of person now. I’m really sorry Mira.”
Mira Sorvino said that she “burst out crying” when she saw Peter Jackson’s comments yesterday, adding “there it is, confirmation that Harvey Weinstein derailed my career, something I suspected but was unsure.”
Sorvino and Judd are among a large number of women who have accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault and harassment since the New York Times broke the story of his decades-long campaign of abuse.
https://twitter.com/realzwigoff/status/941864029051428866
“At the time, we had no reason to question what these guys were telling us,” Jackson said yesterday about the Weinstein brothers’ blacklist.
“But in hindsight, I realize that this was very likely the Miramax smear campaign in full swing. I now suspect we were fed false information about both of these talented women and as a direct result their names were removed from our casting list.”
