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Why Kate Winslet Refused to Thank Harvey Weinstein in Her Oscar Speech

“The fact that I’m never going to have to deal with Harvey Weinstein again as long as I live is one of the best things that’s ever happened, and I’m sure the feeling is universal.”
kate winslet at the oscars
Getty: 84980565 By Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images. Kate Winslet gives her acceptance speech at the 81st Academy Awards, February 22, 2009.By Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images.

Now that Harvey Weinstein has fallen from his powerful perch, numerous stars are coming forward to publicly share their long-held distaste for the ousted producer—including Kate Winslet, who recently revealed that when she won the best-actress Oscar in 2009 for her role in The Reader, a drama distributed by the Weinstein Company, she was told to thank Weinstein in her speech. She refused. In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times, the actress explained exactly why she chose to keep her speech Weinstein-free.

“That was absolutely deliberate,” she said. “It was nothing to do with not being grateful. If people aren’t well-behaved, why would I thank him?”

Weinstein has been a part of Winslet’s career since the beginning. Her first film was Heavenly Creatures, a Peter Jackson-directed drama that was distributed by Miramax, the pre-Weinstein Company banner that Harvey ran with his brother, Bob. As Winslet became more famous, Weinstein would often remind her of that fact whenever he saw her.

“For my whole career, Harvey Weinstein, whenever I’ve bumped into him, he’d grab my arm and say, ‘Don’t forget who gave you your first movie.’ Like I owe him everything,” said Winslet. “Then later, with The Reader, same thing: ‘I’m gonna get you that Oscar nomination, I’m gonna get you a win, I’m gonna win for you.’”

“But that’s how he operated. He was bullying and nasty. Going on a business level, he was always very, very hard to deal with—he was rude. He used to call my female agent a [vulgar name for a woman] every time he spoke to her on the telephone.”

In 2009, Winslet earned her sixth Oscar nomination for her performance in The Reader. She was the front-runner in the weeks leading up to to the ceremony; when she did ultimately win, she was given a whopping three minutes on stage to speak, a sign of her own status and power in Hollywood. In hindsight, it seems telling that Winslet never mentioned Weinstein or the Weinstein Company during all that time, instead calling out director Stephen Daldry, the cast, her family, her fellow nominees, famous friends like Peter Jackson and Emma Thompson, the Academy, and several other people not named Harvey Weinstein.

It should be noted that by 2009, Weinstein, an Oscar winner himself, was one of the most thanked men at the Academy Awards; he has been personally mentioned in at least 34 acceptance speeches over the last 20 years by stars including Renée Zellweger, Ben Affleck, Colin Firth, and more. That same year that Winslet won, Vicky Cristina Barcelona star Penelope Cruz picked up the statuette for best-supporting actress—and also thanked Weinstein on stage.

In the L.A. Times interview, Winslet said she “can’t even begin to describe the disgraceful behavior that went on” during the making of The Reader—another reason she declined to call out Weinstein in her speech. “I’m actually not going to because it’s a can of worms that I’m not prepared to publicly open—nothing to do with sexual harassment, thankfully, lucky me. My god. I somehow dodged that bullet.”

The film was previously dogged by grim reports of Weinstein’s behavior around the time of its release, including one that Daldry wanted more time to work on the film, but Weinstein insisted on releasing it in late 2008 so it could cinch Oscar nods. He went so far as to badger Sydney Pollack on his deathbed (the legendary director was a producer on The Reader), and the widow of Anthony Minghella, who was also a producer. This was all according to producer Scott Rudin, who clashed so much with Weinstein that he ended up taking his name off the film.

In her interview, Winslet said that Weinstein shut down production on the film when there were still four days left on the schedule: “He was always, always very, very, very unpleasant to deal with. Very.

Now that the allegations about his “disgraceful, despicable behavior” are out in the open, Winslet added, she hopes that Weinstein “absolutely is punished within the fullest extent of the law.” (Weinstein spokesperson Sallie Hofmeister has released this statement: “Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr Weinstein.”)

And regardless of the legal ramifications, Winslet is glad to be done with the disgraced producer: “The fact that I’m never going to have to deal with Harvey Weinstein again as long as I live is one of the best things that’s ever happened and I'm sure the feeling is universal.”