Gwyneth Paltrow opens up about having screaming matches with ‘bully boss’ Harvey Weinstein and reveals Jack Nicholson asked her out before she won her Oscar
- Gwyneth Paltrow, 46, says Harvey Weinstein was a bully
- She reveals she only had ‘one really uncomfortable experience with him’ and he was never harassed her again
- ‘He was a very difficult boss. It was a fraught relationship. We would get in knock-down, drag-out fights,’ she revealed on their screaming matches
Gwyneth Paltrow is opening up on her dark relationship with disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Paltrow was flung into the spotlight with her Academy Award winning performance in the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love, produced by Weinstein’s company Miramax.
‘He was a bully. I never had a problem standing up to him. I wasn’t scared of him. I also felt for a period of time, I was the consumer face of Miramax, and I felt it was my duty to push back against him. We had a lot of fights,’ she reveals in a tell-all interview with Variety.
Weinstein was kicked out of the Academy in 2017 after he was accused of rape and sexual harassment by a slew of actresses.
Paltrow shocked tinsel town when she joined the clamor of voices accusing Weinstein of abusing his power over women in the industry when she revealed he came onto her at the start of filming Emma in 1996.
Gwyneth Paltrow is opening up on her dark relationship with disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who helped skyrocket her to fame in the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love.
He summoned her to his hotel room, allegedly put his hands on her then asked the young actress for a massage.
‘I had one really uncomfortable, weird experience; then he was never inappropriate with me again in that way,’ Paltrow said.
She had to work with him again for the completion of Shakespeare in Love.
Asides from the hotel experience, Paltrow says Weinstein was difficult to work professionally. He refused to give her back-end compensation for Emma and she had to continually pressure him until she received the money.
‘I got him to pay me something. I remember I got this legal letter that said, “This is not an acknowledgement that we owe you this money, but here’s a check.”‘
‘He was a very difficult boss. It was a fraught relationship. We would get in knock-down, drag-out fights. I remember once, my mother [Blythe Danner] walked in a room, and I was yelling at him about something. She was like, “Who was that on the phone.”‘
When Paltrow said it was Weinstein, her mother replied, ‘Oh, my goodness, good for you. Stand up for yourself.’
But the movie ended up being worth it as ‘it just changed my life’, the 46-year-old actress says.
It won her an Oscar for best actress in 1999 and catapulted her to Hollywood royalty.
When asked if Weinstein’s involvement with the film tarnishes its legacy she responded saying, ‘It’s a beautiful film. A movie is not going to be successful if it’s not a good movie, not like that.’
Paltrow said she was the first person offered the film when it came into the hands of Miramax, and she originally turned it down as she was going through a rough break-up with Brad Pitt.
‘I was in the middle of a terrible breakup and the idea of going to England and being far from home just seemed…I didn’t even read it. I was just like “I can’t read anything right now. I’m having a really hard time.”‘
Paltrow gave a tearful speech and accepted her award from Jack Nicholson, who it turned out had asked her out some time beforehand.
‘Jack Nicholson gave it to me. There’s a funny story where he’d been trying to ask me out before, and I was like, “I have a boyfriend!”‘ she said.