Winona Ryder said she felt she was blacklisted by Miramax in the past, and described an interaction with Harvey Weinstein that she thinks was partly to blame.
The famous actress said Miramax was uninterested in her in “the late 1990s and early 2000s” for “various reasons,” then told Esquire about her run-in with Weinstein, according to an interview published Aug.29. Ryder said she unknowingly angered the company’s co-founder, the once all-powerful and now disgraced mogul, Weinstein. who is currently imprisoned on a number of sexual assault charges.
NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 29: Actress Winona Ryder and Harvey Weinstein attend IFP’s 20th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards at Cipriani, Wall Street on November 29, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images for IFP)
Weinstein ran Miramax until 2005, according to Ryder, she didn’t leave a positive impression on him.
“The one time I was supposed to have a meeting with [Harvey Weinstein], I went to the Miramax office and I extended my hand and he shook my hand and I sat on the couch and we had a conversation and I left,” Ryder told Esquire.
Their encounter seemed to be an average one to the actress, but she later discovered Weinstein didn’t see it the same way.
“And [afterwards] I got like screamed at [by an agent]. ‘What the fuck did you do?’” Ryder said.
Actress Winona Ryder arrives at the TNT/TBS broadcast of the 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards held at The Shrine Auditorium on January 30, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. 20823_003_CP_0441.JPG (Photo by Christopher Polk/WireImage) Getty Images
“I was like, ‘What?’ Apparently, I offended him because I extended my hand?…I guess,” she told Esquire.
Ryder said she had already worked with Miramax for the 1993 production of “The House of the Spirits,” and she recalled another incident with Weinstein that seemed odd to her at the time.
The actress said Weinstein pounded on her trailer door during production, adamantly trying to engage her in starring in a film adaptation of the stage play “Little Voice.”
“And I was like, ‘Oh my God, I just saw that in London,’” Ryder recalled.
Harvey Weinstein and Winona Ryder during 19th Annual American Museum of the Moving Image Benefit – Salute to Richard Gere – Inside at Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, New York, United States. (Photo by KMazur/WireImage for NBC Universal Photo Department) Getty Images
“I was like, ‘You have to cast that girl [from the play], Jane Horrocks. She’s fucking amazing.’ And he got very weird and he left,” she said, according to Esquire.
“He did not like me,” she said. (RELATED: 90s Star Mira Sorvino Tears Up As She Says Turning Down Harvey Weinstein Stifled Her Career)
Ryder denied experiencing sexual misconduct during her encounters with Weinstein.
