In a new interview, Helena Bonham Carter gets frank abut her experiences working with Harvey Weinstein in the decades before the sexual assault allegations against him came to light.
Speaking with The Guardian’s Simon Hattenstone, Carter said she found Weinstein’s behavior “chilling,” even “revolting” at times, and that he very often treated people he was working with “without any kind of respect.” Why? Because he could:
Nobody is wholly bad and nobody is wholly good. He was very clever. There are a lot of reasons he was very powerful. He knew how to get you Oscar nominations. Both my [Academy Award] nominations [for 1997’s The Wings of the Dove and 2010’s The King’s Speech] are due to him… [But] I found the way he treated certain people chilling—without any kind of respect. There were many times I disagreed with the way he behaved, and I don’t mean sexually… There were times when Harvey asked me to do certain things, and I said no. I knew I was running a thin line. Standing up to him wasn’t an easy thing to do because I knew I could potentially lose work.
The Ocean’s 8 star—whose next project, 55 Steps, will be released Oct. 15—said that she never thought Weinstein’s behavior would ever come back to bite him. He was too powerful, she told Hattenstone.
When asked why she continued working with him after her first negative experience, Bonham Carter said, “It’s a business.” She said that she was aware that Weinstein had had sexual relationships with other actresses, but she “thought it was consensual.”