Martin Scorsese reflected on how challenging it was to work with Harvey Weinstein in a recent interview with GQ, and recalled feeling so frustrated by his constraints that he was ready to quit.
Scorsese said his two most revered movies, “Gangs of New York,” and “The Aviator,” were difficult to complete because of Weinstein during the interview with GQ. He said Weinstein tried to exert control over the movie’s budget and runtime, and imposed restrictions that he wasn’t comfortable with. “I realized that I couldn’t work if I had to make films that way ever again,” Scorsese said.
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Scorsese spoke of the tension and frustration he experienced while working under Weinstein’s Miramax Studio on “Gangs of New York.”
“If that was the only way that I was able to be allowed to make films, then I’d have to stop,” he said to GQ.
The famous director and producer noted that working with so many limitations and not enough creative freedom wasn’t allowing him to enjoy what was supposed to be a creative experience.
“Because the results weren’t satisfying. It was at times extremely difficult, and I wouldn’t survive it. I’d be dead,” he said.
“And so I decided it was over, really,” Scorsese told GQ.
He went on to say his experience working on “The Aviator” was also challenging, and he faced the same issues because Weinstein’s Miramax co-distributed the movie alongside Warner Bros. Pictures.
He tried to protest this relationship but was shut down.
“And I was against that; there was a meeting, and I was forced into that position,” Scorsese said, referencing having to work with Weinstein again. (RELATED: ‘Hollywood Is F*cked Up’: Emily Ratajkowski Speaks Out About The Dark Side Of The Industry)
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“I’d already been, uh, made pregnant, as they said. And there’s no way you’re getting out of it.”
“But the shoot went well, the editing went well until the last couple of weeks of editing. And they came in and did some things that I felt were extremely mean,” Scorsese said.
He said both Miramax and Warner Bros. stopped funding the movie at he last leg of production, which ultimately resulted in Scorsese investing $500,000 of his own money to finish the film, according to GQ.
Scorsese’s new film, “In Killers of the Flower Moon,” will be released October 20.