Moviemaking power structure is layered with potential abuse
“When people see you can perform awards miracles, they think you’re God. That’s why (Harvey Weinstein) got away with his behavior. If you’re an actress walking into a room with God and he asks you for a massage, what are you going to say?” founder and editor of AwardsDaily.com Sasha Stone
How did he get away with it for so long? To begin to answer the complex question of how movie mogul Harvey Weinstein could allegedly harass and assault women for decades without detection — 84 have now stepped forward, triggering a cascade of accusations against Kevin Spacey, Louis C.K., James Toback, Brett Ratner, Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer, among others — is to understand the ever-evolving Hollywood power structure and how movies are made.
Major studios rule Hollywood, but Harvey Weinstein stood out for his Oscar clout
Six corporate-owned studios remain at the top of the Hollywood movie pyramid: Paramount, Sony, 20th Century Fox, Universal, Walt Disney and Warner Bros. All serve as one-stop production houses — producing, marketing, publicizing and distributing big-budget films such as Justice League, Warner/DC Films’ latest superhero movie.
The bottom-line-oriented big studios rely on safe, tested concepts, with release schedules heavy on sequels, franchises and branded content (from Rocky to Harry Potter) — the “tentpole” movies that are reliable moneymakers in an era when cinemas face strong headwinds.
“If you look at the constantly moving power among Hollywood studios, producers and directors, the pendulum has swung over to the big studios,” says Stephen Galloway, executive editor of features for The Hollywood Reporter.
Weinstein became a larger-than-life figure in Hollywood as co-founder of the “mini-majors” Miramax (started in
1979) and The Weinstein Company
(2005), producing and distributing awards-friendly films.
The domineering studio head was able to amass tremendous influence with his strong personality, his ability to identify and champion artistic projects, and his track record of Oscar success — the latter cemented when Weinstein’s
Shakespeare in Love was a shock best-picture winner over Steven Spielberg’s heavily favored Saving Private
Ryan in 1999.
“The way he leveraged and grew his power was in the Oscar race,” says Sasha Stone, founder and editor of AwardsDaily.com. “When people see you can perform awards miracles, they think you’re God. That’s why he got away with his behavior. If you’re an actress walking into a room with God and he asks you for a massage, what are you going to say?”
The mogul’s power had eroded somewhat in recent years from rising competition, including streaming studios Amazon and Netflix, as well as major studios’ specialty divisions, such as Fox Searchlight and Sony Classics.
But Weinstein had the muscle to keep his victims silent and avoid exposure, even using spy agencies to investigate journalists and potential whistle-blowers before stories broke. (Weinstein has denied all allegations against him.)
“He may not have been the Harvey Weinstein of his peak in the 1990s, but he was still a very dangerous man at the time these women came forward and these reporters were writing,” says Jonathan Handel, an entertainment attorney and adjunct professor at the University of Southern California. “They caused a dam to burst.”
Producers pull projects together
Producers work behind the scenes, bringing a film together from beginning to end, with tasks that can include securing rights to stories, hiring the writers and directors and lining up financing. Studios tap trusted producers to execute their tentpoles.
Multiple companies can be involved in a single film in an increasingly partner-filled business that spreads the risk.
“It’s become a big quilt of producers, with a number of names and companies,” says Pete Hammond, awards columnist for Deadline.com. “If you look at the producers’ credit on a movie, it now takes a village.”
But producers still wield power in Hollywood. “They are the ones getting the movies made,” Hammond says.
They also share the task of hiring with the director, including hiring actors. Most of Weinstein’s accusers met with him in his capacity as a producer, often in hotel rooms, and were told they would be discussing projects or parts.
“Weinstein was the quintessential example of someone using his influence” to make careers, Handel says. “A good role for an actor can be the difference between being an Uber driver and being a star.”
Directors brings stories to life
The creative force behind the camera has less power when corporate studios finance the filmmaking: The majors seek reliable overseers and affordable rising talent to helm their tentpoles, not personalities bigger than the franchise.
Just look to the Star Wars franchise: For his fourth feature film, Rian Johnson inherited the billion-dollar reins of Star
Wars: The Last Jedi for Disney and has earned an expanded trilogy. Meanwhile, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller ( Solo: A Star Wars Story) and Colin Trevorrow ( Star Wars: Episode IX) exited their projects after losing creative battles with the studio.
There are still risk-takers who earn big budgets for original stories, such as Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg and James Cameron, thanks to their box office track record. And independent auteurs like Wes Anderson and Paul Thomas Anderson are able to bring their ideas to the screen on a scaled-down budget to minimize financial exposure.
The director is the boss on the set, which leaves actors vulnerable to the sort of verbal abuse Ellen Page says she experienced on the set of X-Men: The
Last Stand. She says Brett Ratner aggressively outed her as a lesbian in front of her castmates.
It’s difficult, even for an established star, to speak up against these forces, Page wrote on Facebook:
“If I, a person with significant privilege, remain reluctant and at such risk simply by saying a person’s name, what are the options for those who do not have what I have?”
The stars keep shining
With the exception of the biggest names in the business, who can call their own shots — Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence, George Clooney and Tom Cruise, for starters — most actors compete for desired projects. But the marquee value of even the top stars has diminished in the past decade.
“There is not one star that can open a movie the way they used to be able to,” Hammond says. “Now people line up to see Star Wars, Pixar or Marvel films. The studio movie content is the star.”
Stars, who are essentially free agents, have strong incentive to keep good relationships with powerful people across the industry with whom they might work. “This is a town built on relationships,” Hammond says.
Actors who speak out against abuse could be labeled problematic, which could make it difficult to find work. “There is the ‘You won’t eat in the town again’ problem if you’re viewed as a troublemaker,” Handel says.
Still, actors also derive tremendous popular influence from their universal fame and appeal, and victims and observers alike have hesitated to speak out when it’s a star doing the abusing.
“This town does coddle ‘the talent,’ ” Handel says. “Up until (the scandal broke), it was tolerant of sexual misconduct. But these instances will likely be called out going forward.”
Exhibit A: Production shut down on Kevin Spacey’s Netflix series House of
Cards in October after an anonymous group of current and former employees described a “toxic” work environment in which young male crew members were sexually harassed. Production will resume early next year — without Spacey.
Agents find projects for talent
Talent agents work with producers and studios to secure projects for actors, directors and screenwriters, negotiating the deal and taking a fee percentage.
Managers and agents are similar, both serving as middlemen between the talent and the production/studio side. Talent agencies such as Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and William Morris Endeavor (WME) are major shakers, working with the biggest stars and clients.
“The top-tier agents are among the
most powerful forces in Hollywood,” says Violaine Roussel, author of Representing Talent: Hollywood Agents and
the Making of Movies. “Even the biggest star knows star power is not enough. They need a powerful agent. It’s a small world of players, and it’s crucial to be part of that. Where there’s this power, there’s the potential of abuse of power.”
Terry Crews has accused a high-level agent of groping him at a party. The actor dumped his talent agency, WME, a day after filing a report with the Los Angeles Police Department.
CAA fired agent Cameron Mitchell after actress Demi Mann filed a lawsuit claiming Mitchell promised to secure a role for her in a Marvel TV project so he could manipulate her into sex.
Screenwriters provide the words
Film screenwriters don’t have the clout of their compatriots in the writeris-king medium of television, says Bryan Michael Stoller, independent filmmaker and author of Filmmaking for
Dummies. Movie scripts can be worked and reworked multiple times, with different writers taking a crack at it until the producers or the studio are pleased with the final product.
“Screenwriters are often seen as expendable or changeable,” Stoller says. “And it’s often done in offices, homes or coffee shops. It’s solitary work.”
And they have to network in the industry, leaving themselves open to potential abuse. Actress/screenwriter Louisette Geiss said she was harassed by Weinstein when he invited her to his hotel room in 2008 to pitch her screenplay during the Sundance Film Festival.
“Really, no one is the industry is immune or safe from abuse,” Handel says.
But the past eight weeks have seen historic movement.
“These are uncharted times for discussion and change. We’ve never seen anything like the intensity and volume of this discussion,” Handel says. “The big question is whether the change is going to be permanent.”