Harvey Weinstein tried to bully me, reveals Joseph Fiennes

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Joseph Fiennes, star of the television series The Handmaid’s Tale and of the 1998 hit movie, Shakespeare in Love, has explained why he turned down the chance to play major roles in a run of Hollywood blockbusters early in his career.

It was, he said, a reaction to bullying pressure put on him by Harvey Weinstein, who wanted to take control of his life, and Fiennes does not regret the decision.

Speaking to the Observer this weekend, the younger brother of Ralph Fiennes revealed that he backed away from a lucrative deal with Weinstein’s hugely successful former company, Miramax, at the end of a tense meeting with the disgraced film mogul.

Weinstein, who is now serving a 23-year prison sentence for sex crimes, had cast Fiennes in the role of William Shakespeare opposite Gwyneth Paltrow in the multi-Oscar-winning film, and he was then in line to be signed up for a coveted five-picture contract.

Called up to meet Weinstein in his hotel room, long before the international MeToo scandal broke around the American producer, the actor claimed he was effectively threatened by Weinstein that if he did not comply with the offered deal, he would not work in Hollywood again.

“It was a bullying tactic that didn’t sit well,” Fiennes said. “The way he explained it was a shock to me. But I suddenly sat in the room very present, and happy and strong in myself to say, you know what, I’m not beholden to that. I’m stepping away.”

Although Fiennes, 53, has enjoyed a strong acting career and is now about to appear at the National Theatre in Dear England, James Graham’s play about football manager Gareth Southgate, his youthful trajectory was less starry than predicted.

Fiennes had won the role of Shakespeare just a few years after leaving drama school, and in the past he has explained his choice to leave Hollywood soon afterwards as down to his love of theatre and his fear of being forced to appear in low-quality, big-budget films.

Now Fiennes has spoken more freely, although he still refuses to give full details of that meeting with Weinstein more than two decades ago. “I have to be careful here,” he said, but he has indicated that he is still unsettled by what was said.

Asked if Weinstein later carried out the threat to actively impede his career, the actor said: “I don’t think it helped me”, and added that the producer “made it clear that he won’t support me”.

“He’ll make a very strong movement not to support me,” he said. “I was out of the family. But I was very happy not to be in the family.”