More than 20 years later, Patricia Clarkson is recounting her unfortunate experience with Harvey Weinstein.
The Oscar nominee explained that the disgraced producer tried to submit her at the 76th Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress, despite her lead role in Miramax‘s 2003 film The Station Agent.
“I hate when actors put themselves in false categories. I think that’s something that needs to be addressed by the Academy. Too often it happens,” she told Business Insider. “When you are supporting, you should be truly a supporting player, and when you’re the lead, you have to step up and go into a harder category. I was the lead in Station Agent, so I said, ‘No, Harvey, I’m not going into supporting.’”
That same year, she received a Supporting Actress nod for her performance in the United Artists film Pieces of April. “I’m definitely supporting in that. Katie Holmes is clearly the lead of that film,” she explained.
“So I went up against Harvey, and he told me I’d never work again,” said Clarkson, adding: “It got very ugly.”
Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson and Bobby Cannavale in ‘The Station Agent’ (2003) (Miramax/Courtesy Everett Collection)
After more than 80 women have come forward with sexual harassment, assault or rape allegations against Weinstein since 2017, Clarkson acknowledged that her incident was far less severe, which is why she rarely addresses it.
“This was patter to me, what I went through with Harvey. It was still difficult and terrible what he did to me, but compared to so many women who went through so much more, it was odd to talk about it,” she said.
Clarkson portrayed New York Times editor Rebecca Corbett in the 2022 drama She Said, about the investigation that exposed Weinstein’s years of misconduct. “Of course it was a motivation,” she said of their interaction inspiring her to take the role.
In 2020, Weinstein was found guilty on one count each of criminal sexual assault in the first degree and rape in the third degree, sentenced to 23 years in prison. He was found guilty of three more charges in Los Angeles in 2022, receiving another 16 years.
With his New York convictions overturned due to “egregious errors” on behalf of the judge, his retrial kicked off on April 15. Weinstein is currently in custody at Rikers.