Guest Post by Lizzie Borden
I have been silent because I felt my story was of no great significance compared to the women who were raped and assaulted by Harvey Weinstein. But I feel compelled to write now that Meryl Streep has been called out on the question of who knew what when.
When Jodi Kantor called me months before her story broke in The New York Times, I told her about Harvey’s bullying but explained that I knew nothing about rapes or sexual assaults. In 1985, Harvey had picked up my film “Working Girls” for distribution. Back then, he and his brother, Bob, worked from a small office on the West Side on Manhattan. Harvey was romancing his assistant, Eve, a sweet Princess Grace-type. She later became his first wife. Harvey’s mother was always around and he called me a “Weinstein sister.” I was never a target. Too old. Not pretty enough. My only battle with him was marketing my film as an “erotic comedy.” He threw furniture at assistants, punched walls.
Harvey made my film “Love Crimes” in 1991. I wondered why he wouldn’t let me cast Natasha Richardson or Isabelle Huppert. He would only make the film with Sean Young. She didn’t read Allan Moyle and Laurie Frank’s edgy script until the first day of production and freaked out. It was rewritten every day, and not by me. In the chaos, I had no idea Sean would emerge in the #MeToo movement due to her dealings with Harvey. I saw nothing. My own battles with Harvey led him to brand me as “difficult” and tell me that he would destroy me if I took my name off the film. I ended up in “movie jail” — but that is nothing compared to what Sean must have endured.
A few years ago, Harvey almost made a Bob Marley film I wrote. I saw him once. In a very “lite” way, I was like many of the women who spoke out. I smiled. We spoke briefly about his kids by Eve.
I had heard some rumors over the years but no evidence, and ascribed it to grumbling by victims, male and female, of his bullying. Harvey had two faces, as others have remarked. All talented killers, rapists, and liars lead double lives. He respected and needed Meryl Streep and Judi Dench, and I’m sure he was careful to ensure they knew nothing. Forgive me for saying this because I regard both women as sexy as hell, but Harvey most likely didn’t regard either woman as “sexual.”
Rose McGowan expressed her truth and her fear. Streep answered eloquently. But it should stop there — there’s no need for trolls dragging her or other Miramax actors into “she knew” witch hunts. Most people— except the enablers inside the company — did not know. Only a few male “cronies” knew what was going on and a couple of them — Quentin Tarantino, for example — have spoken up. The women who were raped or assaulted only told only a few people.
The system is so entrenched, and so patriarchal. Feelings of fear, self-doubt, and shame are so powerful that even in the most non-patriarchal of environments, like Jill Soloway’s mostly cis-female/gender-queer set on “Transparent,” there can be problems. If it could happen there, it is happening elsewhere and now, especially off the grid and where the spotlight of fame doesn’t shine.
The Right wants to undercut the voices of #MeToo, a fact evidenced by the fake “She knew” Streep posters. There are marches coming up, another massive show of power linked to the voices of women. It is no accident that Streep has been a trusted spokesperson for the Left and she’s being targeted. We must stand together, not as “One,” but side by side, stepping forward, not distracted by revisionist history.
Lizzie Borden is an independent filmmaker whose most noted films are Born “In Flames” (1983) and “Working Girls” (1986).
