Sarah Polley shares her own unsavoury Harvey Weinstein encounter, but makes it clear he is one of many offenders.
In an op-ed for the New York Times, the acclaimed director recalled meeting Weinstein when she was 19-years-old. “I was pulled out of the photo shoot abruptly,” she wrote. “The publicist said that we needed to be in Harvey Weinstein’s office in 20 minutes.”
The writing on the wall was immediately clear to Polley after entering the taxi en route to see Weinstein. Her publicist told her, “I’m going in with you. And I’m not leaving your side.”
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According to the Canadian entertainer, now 38, Weinstein explained how he had a “very close relationship” with another actress. He told Polley leading roles and awards could be in her future if she had a similar relationship with Weinstein.
But Polley said Weinstein is far from the only shady character in Hollywood. “Most directors are insensitive men,” wrote Polley.
“And while I’ve met quite a few humane, kind, sensitive male directors and producers in my life, sadly they are the exception and not the rule,” she continued. “This industry doesn’t tend to attract the most gentle and principled among us.”
To that point, Polley shared one male producer’s response to her concern over a rape scene being handled inappropriately. “Dakota Fanning had done a rape scene when she was 12 and she’s fine,” the producer said.
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“Harvey Weinstein may be the central-casting version of a Hollywood predator, but he was just one festering pustule in a diseased industry.”
The controversy surrounding Weinstein has Polley chewing on an important question: “What else are we turning a blind eye to, in all aspects of our lives?”
“What else have we accepted that, somewhere within us, we know is deeply unacceptable?” she concluded. “And what now will we do about it?”
