Kevin Smith has branded Harvey Weinstein as a "bully".
The 47-year-old filmmaker and comedian worked with the now-disgraced producer – who has been accused of sexually harassing a number of female employees over a period of 30 years – on a number of early productions through production company Miramax, and has now slammed his former producer in the wake of the allegations against him.
Kevin said: "It makes you kind of go, ‘I guess nobody really knows anybody’. He never did that stuff in front of people. He certainly never did it in front of me. I mean, we all knew that he was a bully. He was your bully so that was OK, but you were also on the other side of that sometimes. That was the nature of the beast. There was a lot of forgiveness even just toward like, ‘Oh, that’s just Harvey’s way.’ He didn’t do those things out loud. So it was an eye-opener when all of that started to come out. And more continues to come out all the time."
The ‘Clerks’ helmer admitted that whilst he was previously proud of having managed to land work with Miramax, he now doesn’t enjoy looking back on that time in his life, because of the "suffering" Harvey supposedly caused.
He added: "I was always so proud of having been part of Miramax in that moment. They couldn’t miss and they were making indie film history and with our dopey little movies we were shoulder-to-shoulder with people like Quentin Tarantino or Anthony Minghella. We felt like the coach kids who snuck into first class. I always thought, hey man, whatever else happens for the rest of your career, you were at Miramax when the moment was happening. And thank the lord I went on to do some other things because those are the accomplishments that now make me feel better. Because the old accomplishments are tied into somebody who was creating a lot of suffering for other people."
Kevin added that he was "caught off guard" by the allegations as Harvey never preyed upon him.
Speaking to The Daily Beast, he said: "Now suddenly you’re like it’s great that those movies were successful, but at what price? So it’s not even been a full year since all this information has broken. You talk to other Miramax people who were there at the company, there’s been a lot of, ‘Did you know? Did you know?’ A lot of us who were male were completely caught off guard, because he didn’t do those things to us. I guess I did go to his hotel room, but he was fully dressed. The people who were victimised clearly knew, but he didn’t go around spreading it or talking about it. But yeah, I’m tied up with that. It used to be a proud thing and now I hopefully have other things to show for my career at the end of the day."
Kevin Smith: Harvey Weinstein is a bully
