ZETA-JONES: I HOPE WEINSTEIN SCANDAL IS A TURNING POINT
‘Shocked and disgusted’ star speaks out on allegations rocking Hollywood:
ONE is a Hollywood star who trod the boards of the West End as a child before becoming a renowned fixture on the silver screen.
The other is a ruthless drug lord, thought to have killed for the first time aged just 11 and who spent almost two decades in jail before meeting a grisly end when she was gunned down by a motorbike-riding assassin.
Catherine Zeta-Jones – who dazzled fans on the red carpet in Cannes – described how she put on weight and “let it all hang out” as she depicted narcotics kingpin Griselda Blanco for her latest film.
The Mumbles-born star plays the Colombian drug lord in Cocaine Godmother, scheduled for release next year, but her appearance at the annual Mipcom event showed her cutting a very different figure from the 69-yearold murderer who was shot dead in 2012.
Zeta-Jones described her physical transformation to perfect the part for her new Lifetime TV movie.
“I gained weight, I was hunched over,” she said. “If I had balls, I’d have grabbed them from time to time. I wanted to let it all hang out. She thought she was beautiful. She was the movie star starring in her own movie. She didn’t give a s***.”
Blanco was a known drug lord thought to be behind an estimated 3,400lb of cocaine smuggling a month and several murders, including one at the age of just 11, though she was only ever convicted of three killings.
She had moved to the United States from Colombia and ran a drug distribution network – moving from New York to Miami to California, before being deported back to Colombia and being gunned down in 2012.
During her appearance at the Women in Global Entertainment talk Zeta-Jones also addressed the allegations surrounding movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
The 48-year-old said she had not been harassed by the producer. His company, Miramax, made Chicago in 2002 – for which Zeta-Jones received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.
But the star said she was “shocked and disgusted” by the accusations against Weinstein, which has seen a number of actresses allege that Weinstein sexually harassed them.
Zeta-Jones said: “I hope that the fall from grace that this man has had – you’re never too big to fail – is a lesson to all those who have questioned if this behaviour is acceptable...
“I think the attention is due and I really believe that if this is not the tipping point it’s at least some kind of turning point.”
She added: “That big old dinosaur of people who think a man is able to get away with that behaviour and has been getting away with it for years is extinct as of now.”
The star – who cut her teeth in TV shows like The Darling Buds of May – also addressed the resurgence of the small screen, which she said had been the source of “stigma” in the past.
“I was stuck in the showgirl theatre box,” she said.
“Eventually, I made it into television in Britain and then made it to film.
“If you got to do film, you don’t go to TV. That has changed.
“Actors are able to do human stories – they don’t have to be robots for a $200m movie.
“This is why we do it – to have those international human stories that any culture can understand.”