Most people there were ambivalent and made a deal with the devil for what they could get out of it. Not to justify it, but they were only human. Anybody is a potential enabler if they work in that industry.
“We’re all used to predators working alone, but when they band up like a pack of hyenas, that’s a whole other ballgame,” said Zoë Brock, a model and writer who accused Weinstein of making unwanted sexual advances.
“There are enablers all over the place,” said Jeff Herman, an attorney who represents sex abuse victims and is investigating options for some of Weinstein’s alleged victims. Predators’ companies often facilitated abusive encounters masquerading as work meetings, he said. “Sending limousines to pick up the victim, making flight arrangements. These guys aren’t making their own plans, making reservations.”
Other industry figures agreed, saying that transactions conducted amid sunshine, palm trees and dazzling smiles often concealed darker agendas.
Peter Biskind, the author of Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of Independent Film, a 2004 book chronicling Weinstein’s rise in the 1990s, said facilitators ensured the alleged sexual abuse ran smoothly. “It does seem that way. They refined their technique.”
Employees at Miramax put up with Weinstein’s methods and intimidation – he kept a baseball bat in his office – because the company made great films and gilded CVs, he said. “Most people there were ambivalent and made a deal with the devil for what they could get out of it. Not to justify it, but they were only human. Anybody is a potential enabler if they work in that industry.”
Weinstein was for many years Hollywood’s King Midas, a producer and dealmaker who nurtured talents including Quentin Tarantino and turned quirky low-budget films such as The Crying Game into major hits. He turned pitches into films and marketed the hell out of them, wooing the media and Academy Award voters with charm, bluster and guile.
“Everybody has everything to gain by staying in his good graces: actors, writers, creative people – he is the conduit,” said Paul Feig, the director of Bridesmaids. “He is the gatekeeper to getting projects made, getting your face on screen, to you getting an Oscar.”
Hollywood has a long tradition of casting couch abuses dating from the silent era and through the golden age, snagging the likes of Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe. Roman Polanksi and Woody Allen are still revered despite, respectively, a rape conviction and sex abuse allegations.
The brazenness shocked Haynes, a Brit, when she first moved to LA. A studio head was among those who propositioned her, she said. “People think there is an untouchable element.”
The New Yorker quoted three women who accused him of rape, an accusation the producer has vehemently denied. The article also cited 16 former and current executives and assistants at Weinstein’s companies who said they had witnessed or had knowledge of unwanted sexual advances.
Michael Reiss, 47, who said he briefly worked as a marketing assistant at Miramax in the 90s, recalled a culture in which junior and senior employees feared Weinstein.
“Fear was the driving force, but at the same time they were such a prestigious organisation, especially after Pulp Fiction. No one wanted to buck the system. Some people were planning their escape, but tried to stay long enough to have something on their résumé. The culture of silence back then was not just for people to preserve their jobs. It was presumed that these people, these movie star producers, could just do whatever they wanted.”
Weinstein cultivated journalists who ran glowing pieces about favoured actors – and negative pieces about those who angered or defied him.
Even so, at least eight women made complaints, according to the New York Times. None became a public scandal.
The plaintiffs accepted payment and settled out of court, bound to secrecy – a typical outcome, said Haynes, in sex abuse cases.