Jackson: Weinstein enforced blacklist
Sir Peter Jackson has described the Weinstein brothers as ‘‘secondrate Mafia bullies’’ and accused them of orchestrating a smear campaign that led him to blacklist actresses Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino.
Jackson, speaking to Stuff for the first time since multiple sexual assault allegations emerged against the disgraced Harvey Weinstein, said he had ‘‘no direct experience or knowledge of the sexual allegations’’ against the Hollywood powerbroker but had earlier made a conscious decision to never work with him again.
Weinstein and Jackson crossed paths in the late 1990s when Jackson was pitching his early plans for The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings films to the Weinstein-led studio Miramax.
Jackson said he expressed interest in casting Judd and Sorvino, both of whom have publicly claimed Weinstein sexually harassed them.
‘‘I recall Miramax telling us they were a nightmare to work with and we should avoid them at all costs. This was probably in 1998,’’ Jackson said.
‘‘At the time, we had no reason to question what these guys were telling us - but in hindsight, I realise 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.’’
Jackson said Weinstein and his brother, Bob, were both particularly difficult to work with.
‘‘My experience, when Miramax controlled the Lord of the Rings [before New Line took over production of the film], was of Weinstein and his brother behaving like second-rate Mafia bullies.
‘‘They weren’t the type of guys I wanted to work with - so I haven’t,’’ he said.
‘‘Although his name had to be on the Lord of the Rings credits for contractual reasons, he was not involved in the movies we ended up making.’’
Weinstein threatened to sack Jackson from the LoTR adaptation if the director did not follow Weinstein’s demands to make the proposed two-part film into one.
He gave Jackson and his wife, Fran Walsh, four weeks to find a new studio that would take on the two-part movie.
Finally, New Line took them on and suggested they make the two films into three to match the books. ‘‘Movie making is much more fun when you work with nice people,’’ Jackson said.
‘‘It’s been 20 years since my last interaction of any substance with Harvey Weinstein.’’
While Jackson’s earlier film Heavenly Creatures was a Miramax release, Jackson said Miramax’s only involvement was its distribution.