Angelina Jolie turned The Aviator because of Harvey Weinstein

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Angelina Jolie swore never to work with the disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein after a meeting early in her career.

Actor, producer and director, Angelina Jolie, has spoken in the past about dealing with the unwanted advances of Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced former head of Miramax and The Weinstein Company, and now a convicted rapist serving time behind bars.

At just 21, Jolie found herself working in the Weinstein-produced Playing By Heart in 1998, where she found herself having to escape an alleged assault from Weinstein. Reflecting on how difficult the experience has been to process she said that “if you get yourself out of the room, you think he attempted but didn’t, right? The truth is that the attempt and the experience of the attempt is an assault”.

Jolie, in an interview with The Guardian (via Variety) also revealed that her experience with Weinstein cost her future roles, including a coveted spot in the Martin Scorsese-directed The Aviator, as she refused to work with Weinstein again. “I was asked to do The Aviator, but I said no because he was involved. I never associated or worked with him again. It was hard for me when Brad [Pitt] did. We fought about it. Of course it hurt.”

Jolie also references the problems it created in her marriage when her former husband, Brad Pitt, elected to work for productions associated with Weinstein, such as the Quentin Tarantino-directed Inglorious Basterds and Killing Them Softly, which Weinstein distributed. Pitt is currently producing a film on the New York Times’ expose of Weinstein, She Said, through his Plan B Entertainment banner.

It’s a candid admission from Jolie that serves as an example that even managing to resist the disgraced producer’s unwanted and illegal actions still left a lot of damage.

Weinstein himself continues to face more charges pertaining to these matters and more potential prison time.

Variety