Mira Sorvino discussed how Harvey Weinstein negatively impacted her career after she rejected his unwanted advances in the 1990s.
Sorvino had risen to fame after winning an Oscar for Mighty Aphrodite in 1996.
However, she claims her career was then “stifled” by Weinstein and she stopped getting major studio roles after 1998.
Sorvino helped spark the #MeToo movement by revealing Weinstein had propositioned her in 1995.
“For a time, I had a lot of wonderful offers and then, my career was stifled by Harvey Weinstein,” Sorvino said. “So, I stopped doing [major] studio movies after 1998.”
While her Oscar win initially led to better roles and pay, Sorvino believes she was blacklisted by Weinstein, which made her no longer “viable” as a movie actress.
“When I was nominated versus won, there were clauses in my contracts that were present at the time that ‘if she wins, she gets this.’ But I definitely got more money because I made $10,000 for the film I won the Oscar for. I moved into a different echelon at that point,” she said.
She continued working in indies and TV but felt her status was declining.
“For me, it was definitely an upgrade in terms of scripts being offered, but I was basically not known before. I mean, it was my 10th film, but I wasn’t a household name. I had some press on a few different projects, like ‘Quiz Show’ and ‘Barcelona,’ but people didn’t really know who I was. So it turned me through that Oscar season into a known actress rather than an unknown actress.”
“I stopped being a viable movie actress,” she said. “I still did indies and I still did television, but that was very hard.”
Sorvino only later connected her derailed career path to rejecting Weinstein.
She emphasized building a family and humanitarian work, finding worth outside fame.
Sorvino “didn’t know at the time what was happening,” she said.
“It became, you know, a sort of feeling like fate was just not going on my side, but it was going to be just a matter of time till I was gonna get back my status,” she said.
“But then, I got married. I became a mother. I became a U.N. goodwill ambassador in human trafficking, [which has] just been a huge part of my life. It’s a position I’ve held since 2009, officially. But yeah, my family. My family is my everything and I don’t see my worth as being a famous actress. I see my worth as being a good person.”
Fellow panelist Susan Sarandon argued more should be done to punish those who enabled Weinstein’s abuse of power in Hollywood.
“I don’t think people talk enough about the people who facilitated the Harvey Weinsteins of the world that are still functioning, that are equally responsible, that knew when they were sending people to a hotel, who didn’t pay attention when someone complained,” Sarandon said.
She added, “Sexualization is like a mainstay of this business. So it’s very confusing to be, you know, a young girl and know that they’re checking on your viability, according to how sexy you are. You know that, right? You do know that there’s something going on.”
“They call it a chemistry thing or whatever they want to call it. But that is part of what you’re bringing to the table. Whether you like that or not, that exists. There was this big flourish of this whole thing and then Harvey Weinstein, thank God, was punished against all odds. But I don’t think we’ve done the cleanup afterwards that we should be doing.”
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