Harvey Weinstein Blasts Peter Jackson, Spills Details of Their Feud
From behind bars, disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, convicted of rape, gives his first major interview to The Hollywood Reporter, reigniting his long-running clash with Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson. He brands Jackson the worst and lays out years of behind-the-scenes bad blood.
Harvey Weinstein just gave his first major interview from prison, and he used it to reopen an old grudge with Peter Jackson while denying, again, that he ever blacklisted Ashley Judd or Mira Sorvino. Subtlety was not on the menu.
The Jackson problem, reignited
Pressed about long-standing claims that Peter Jackson was told not to hire Judd or Sorvino, Weinstein went straight for the director. His take: Jackson has a personal axe to grind from the Miramax/Lord of the Rings days, and he is leaning into it now that Weinstein is behind bars.
'Peter Jackson is the worst.'
Weinstein called the blacklisting allegation a fabrication and said he would take legal action if Jackson repeats it.
'It is a complete fucking lie... If he says it again, I'll sue him too.'
His version of events
Before the Jackson question even came up, Weinstein had already claimed several high-profile women, including Rosanna Arquette, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Angelina Jolie, exaggerated their allegations to be 'part of the club.' Then he pivoted to specifics about Judd and Sorvino, insisting the narrative about retaliation never happened. In his telling:
- He says he pushed hard to cast Ashley Judd in Good Will Hunting, but director Gus Van Sant and co-writer/star Matt Damon insisted on Minnie Driver. As he put it: 'I fought on my last breath to cast Ashley Judd... I fought like a bastard.'
- He says he helped Mira Sorvino by getting her husband a role on a TV show, even removing another actor to make it happen.
- He argues that any blacklisting would have required talent-agency cooperation, and he name-dropped Ari Emanuel and Bryan Lourd as people who would know if that ever occurred.
Where this lands
Weinstein, convicted of rape and serving time, remains adamant that Jackson is misrepresenting the past and that he never told anyone to avoid Judd or Sorvino. He frames Jackson's comments as payback for old Miramax/Lord of the Rings friction. None of this is likely to settle anything, but the threats and the denials are now on the record, loudly.