Harvey Weinstein has responded to Julia Stiles’s recent remarks that one of his acting directions made her feel “so slimy.”
During a recent appearance on Ted Lasso star Brett Goldstein’s Films to be Buried podcast, Stiles, 43, recalled working with the now-convicted rapist on the 2000 romcom Down to You. While the movie, co-led by Stiles and Freddie Prinze Jr., was written and directed by Kris Isaacson, it was distributed by Weinstein’s production studio, Miramax.
“It was a time when teen romcoms were really popular and the director wrote the script,” Stiles said, praising Isaacson as a “very, very intelligent, capable guy” who wrote a “very good” script.
“And then Harvey Weinstein got his hands on it,” the Prince & Me actor claimed. “Because of the success of Save the Last Dance, or the success of 10 Things I Hate About You, with me dancing on the pool table, [Weinstein] needed to have me dancing in the film.”
Stiles said the production mogul tried to “capitalize” on the pool table scenes trend and called his attempt to do so “dumb.”
“I felt so slimy doing it the whole time,” she said. “It was annoying. Because I was like, ‘Well, this is so cheap, and it’s not adding to the story.’”
Weinstein, 72, who is currently awaiting a retrial for a number of charges, including that he forcibly performed oral sex on a movie and TV production assistant in 2006 and raped an aspiring actor in 2013, addressed Stiles’ remarks in a statement shared with The Daily Beast from prison.
“Julia Stiles is a talented and charismatic actress who naturally connects with audiences. Beyond her acting skills, she’s also a fantastic dancer, which was something fans really wanted at the time,” he said.
He said that he included the movie’s table dance scene to “enhance the film’s appeal,” adding that Stiles’ “chemistry with Freddie Prinze Jr. made it work seamlessly.”
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“As a filmmaker, I’ve always sought ways to elevate a project, and when I see an opportunity to make a film better, I take it,” Weinstein added. “That same instinct led David O. Russell and me to cast Julia in Silver Linings Playbook, where she once again delivered a standout performance.”
Weinstein has been in prison since 2020 after he was first convicted in a New York trial of rape and sexual assault and sentenced to 23 years in prison. In 2023, he was separately convicted on three charges of rape and sexual assault in Los Angeles and handed a 16-year sentence, with the judge ruling that the second sentence be served after the first one is completed.
