Molly Ringwald shares Weinstein brothers story
Molly Ringwald has shared her own experience working with the Weinstein brothers and how she was "warned" about the producers before they became Hollywood heavyweights.
Writing a column for The New Yorker, the 49-year-old said she only worked with the 65-year-old once, early in her career after finding success in John Hughes movies such as The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink and16 Candles.
"My Harvey story is different, mostly because of timing. I was in one of the first films that Weinstein produced," Molly writes for the publication.
"I accepted a supporting role in a small movie based on Loser Takes All, the short novel by Graham Greene. I was twenty years old. The idea of playing a supporting role in a small British movie appealed to me after having just made a big splash in the John Hughes movies."
Molly continued saying that while it may have been one of the first films Harvey and brother Bob produced, it was still "inadvisable to cross them", as their power in Hollywood was on the rise.
"When we began filming, in France, I was warned about the producer, but I had never heard of him and had no reason to fear him. The feeling on the set was that he and his brother Bob were becoming powerful and were difficult to work with, and that it was inadvisable to cross them."
And while countless actresses and female employees of the Weinstein's movie studios have come forward over the last two weeks, sharing their stories of sexual harassment from the brothers, the actress believes there was one thing that stopped Harvey from acting inappropriately towards her.
"Thankfully, I wasn’t cajoled into a taxi, nor did I have to turn down giving or getting a massage. I was lucky. Or perhaps it was because, at that moment in time, I was the one with more power," she adds.
However Molly confesses she thought Harvey was "volatile" and recalls a moment over dinner where the 65-year-old became "testy" with production crew.
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"Harvey became testy toward our British co-workers and accused them of thinking of us Americans as just the 'little guys in the colonies'. It was sort of meant as a joke, I suppose, but it made everyone cringe, and all I could think was that the guy was volatile."
Molly says the "worst" she had to deal with were re-writes that Harvey commissioned where not in the original script, saying that even before they "finished filming... the movie was already being taken away from the director."
Despite Harvey not acting inappropriately towards her, Molly also shares her own stories of being subjected to sexual harassment throughout her career.
"I have had plenty of Harveys of my own over the years, enough to feel a sickening shock of recognition. When I was thirteen, a fifty-year-old crew member told me that he would teach me to dance, and then proceeded to push against me with an erection.
"When I was fourteen, a married film director stuck his tongue in my mouth on set. At a time when I was trying to figure out what it meant to become a sexually viable young woman, at every turn some older guy tried to help speed up the process. And all this went on despite my having very protective parents who did their best to shield me. I shudder to think of what would have happened had I not had them," she adds.
Molly's story is just one of many after a New York Times investigation revealed Harvey Weinstein had subjected actresses and female employees to nearly three decades of sexual harassment and abuse.
Since then countless actresses, including Reese Witherspoon, Lena Headey, Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Winslet, Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow, have spoken out condemning the producer and sharing their own stories of misconduct in Hollywood throughout their careers.
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