Winslet Oscar speech ‘left out producer on purpose’
KATE Winslet has said it was “absolutely deliberate” that she did not thank Harvey Weinstein when she won her best actress Oscar, despite the fact his company financed and distributed the film.
The British star, who won the Academy Award in 2009 for The Reader – in which she played a woman hiding her past as a guard at a Nazi concentration camp, thanked 19 people by name but deliberately excluded Weinstein.
She told the Los Angeles Times: “I remember being told, ‘Make sure you thank Harvey if you win.’ And I remember turning around and saying, ‘No I won’t. No I won’t.’
“The fact that I’m never going to have to deal with Harvey Weinstein again as long as I live is one of the best things that’s ever happened. I’m sure the feeling is universal.”
Winslet said the producer never let her forget the fact that she made her first movie, Heavenly Creatures, for his company Miramax Films.
She told the US newspaper: “Harvey Weinstein, whenever I’ve bumped into him, he’d grab my arm and say, ‘Don’t forget who gave you your first movie.’ Like I owe him everything.
“Then later, with The Reader, same thing, ‘I’m gonna get you that Oscar nomination, I’m gonna get you a win, I’m gonna win for you.’
“But that’s how he operated. He was bullying and nasty.
“Going on a business level, he was always very, very hard to deal with – he was rude.”“