Award-winning playwright Jez Butterworth has revealed that his new play was partly inspired by his encounters with disgraced business mogul Harvey Weinstein.
British playwright, who previously wrote ferryman And Jerusalem As well as the Sky Atlantic drama BritanniaHe told the BBC Front row Radio show recounting his experience with Weinstein – when the duo worked together in 2001 Birthday girl Starring Nicole Kidman – she stayed with him and influenced his writing California Hills.
“My very early experience in filmmaking was with Miramax, specifically with Harvey Weinstein,” Butterworth said. It became very clear, very quickly, that these were the rules of the game. I was meeting actresses in California who wanted to do my movie but they wouldn’t talk to me because they had met him.
When the accusations against Weinstein were announced in 2017, Butterworth read an open letter to the BBC. News night He urged him to “think of all those little 11-year-old girls, over the decades, whose unique talents you have benefited from, whose dreams have been defined decisively and forever.”
In 2018, Butterworth said Radio Times In the same film, the magazine reported, he once punched Weinstein in defense of another colleague.
Weinstein demanded that the producer be removed from the film, and Butterworth insisted not to do so.
When Weinstein punched the producer, Butterworth responded with a knockout punch, saying: “If Harvey wants to start throwing punches, he should know that I know what to do!”
In 2020, Weinstein was sentenced in New York to 23 years in prison after being convicted of two felony charges. In 2022, he was convicted in Los Angeles of three more crimes and sentenced to 16 years in prison, to be served separately.