Jackson: Weinstein made me blacklist stars

Sir Peter Jackson has described the Weinstein brothers as ‘‘secondrate Mafia bullies’’ and says they led him to blacklist actresses Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino.

Jackson, speaking to 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. I now suspect we were fed false information about these talented women - and as a direct result their names were removed from our casting list.’’

Jackson said Weinstein and his brother, Bob, were difficult to work with. ‘‘My experience, when Miramax controlled the Lord of the Rings [before New Line took over], 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.’’

Weinstein wanted Jackson to make the proposed two-part LoTR adaptation into one film.

He gave Jackson four weeks to find a new studio that would take on the two-part movie.

New Line took them on and suggested there be three films. ‘‘Movie making is much more fun when you work with nice people,’’ Jackson said.

While Jackson’s earlier film Heavenly Creatures was a Miramax release, he said Miramax’s only involvement was its distribution.