9/24/2023 0 Comments Nota movie near meHe had validated the last 14 years of my life. In my naïveté, I thought my dream had come true. I did not care about the money I was so excited to work with him and that company. He also demanded a signed deal for me to do several other films with Miramax, which I thought would cement my status as a leading lady.Įvery weekday, get thought-provoking commentary from Op-Ed columnists, The Times editorial board and contributing writers from around the world. As a producer, I would receive a credit that would not yet be defined, but no payment, which was not that rare for a female producer in the ’90s. As an actress, I would be paid the minimum Screen Actors Guild scale plus 10 percent. The deal we made initially was that Harvey would pay for the rights of work I had already developed. Knowing what I know now, I wonder if it wasn’t my friendship with them - and Quentin Tarantino and George Clooney - that saved me from being raped. All I knew of Harvey at the time was that he had a remarkable intellect, he was a loyal friend and a family man. I knew him a little bit through my relationship with the director Robert Rodriguez and the producer Elizabeth Avellan, who was then his wife, with whom I had done several films and who had taken me under their wing. I had started a journey to produce the film with a different company, but I fought to get it back to take it to Harvey. It was everything that Frida was to me and everything I aspired to be. ![]() ![]() The Weinstein empire, which was then Miramax, had become synonymous with quality, sophistication and risk taking - a haven for artists who were complex and defiant. It became my mission to portray the life of this extraordinary artist and to show my native Mexico in a way that combated stereotypes. My greatest ambition was to tell her story. She had the courage to express herself while disregarding skepticism. One of the forces that gave me the determination to pursue my career was the story of Frida Kahlo, who in the golden age of the Mexican muralists would do small intimate paintings that everybody looked down on. And even though I had proven them wrong, I was still a nobody. At the same time, it was unimaginable for a Mexican actress to aspire to a place in Hollywood. In the 14 years that I stumbled from schoolgirl to Mexican soap star to an extra in a few American films to catching a couple of lucky breaks in “Desperado” and “Fools Rush In,” Harvey Weinstein had become the wizard of a new wave of cinema that took original content into the mainstream. ![]() I am inspired by those who had the courage to speak out, especially in a society that elected a president who has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by more than a dozen women and whom we have all heard make a statement about how a man in power can do anything he wants to women. We are finally becoming conscious of a vice that has been socially accepted and has insulted and humiliated millions of girls like me, for in every woman there is a girl. I felt that by now nobody would care about my pain - maybe this was an effect of the many times I was told, especially by Harvey, that I was nobody. When so many women came forward to describe what Harvey had done to them, I had to confront my cowardice and humbly accept that my story, as important as it was to me, was nothing but a drop in an ocean of sorrow and confusion. I had been proud of my capacity for forgiveness, but the mere fact that I was ashamed to describe the details of what I had forgiven made me wonder if that chapter of my life had really been resolved. And why, for so many years, we have been cordial to a man who hurt me so deeply. In reality, I was trying to save myself the challenge of explaining several things to my loved ones: Why, when I had casually mentioned that I had been bullied like many others by Harvey, I had excluded a couple of details. I didn’t consider my voice important, nor did I think it would make a difference. I had brainwashed myself into thinking that it was over and that I had survived I hid from the responsibility to speak out with the excuse that enough people were already involved in shining a light on my monster. This fall, I was approached by reporters, through different sources, including my dear friend Ashley Judd, to speak about an episode in my life that, although painful, I thought I had made peace with.
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