“I never heard of assault or anything”: Michael Caine Was Surprised by Harvey Weinstein’s Real Face Despite Knowing Him to be a Sleazebag
Sir Michael Caine, who has appeared in more than a hundred and sixty movies in his eight decades-long career, is regarded as the British film icon. The veteran actor is known for playing Cockney accents, and with that, he made his breakthrough in the industry in the 1960s and never looked back.
While being a part of some of the most iconic movies, Michael Caine is one of the actors who are widely admired and respected by the audience, fellow actors, and critics across the world. What caught the eyes of the netizens is how Sir Michael Caine was surprised when Harvey Weinstein was charged. Let’s find out.
Sir Michael Caine talks about Harvey Weinstein’s assault charges
In an interview with Belfast Telegraph in 2018, Sir Michael Caine who is a self-declared feminist and supporter of the #MeToo movement spoke about the shift in the industry for women. Caine appeared in three movies by Harvey Weinstein; including The Cider House Rules for which the actor won his first Academy Award. He said in the interview,
“I knew him very well. And I knew about this…we called it the casting couch. But the casting couch for me was nothing to do with assault or exposure or anything like that. You came to the producer if you were a young actress and he said, ‘You’ve got that part’, you said, ‘Thank you very much’, and he said, ‘Provided you do this,’ and you said, ‘No, I’m not doing that’, and you walked out and you didn’t get the part.”
Caine continued,
“But I never hear of assault or anything like that even in Hollywood in all those years.”
According to Mirror U.K., the allegations against Harvey Weinstein didn’t surprise the actor but it was the gravity of them that surprised him. He said,
“I had a row with him once and I called him dishonest. And he said to me, ‘Michael, I’m an honest man. I would only ever stab you in the chest.”
Caine said that he had no idea that Harvey Weinstein would be exposing himself to doing physical harm to the girl. Sir Michael Caine also noted that he was stunned when allegations against Woody Allen came out from his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow.
Sir Michael Caine talks about one good thing that came out of Harvey Weinstein scandal
The actor during an interview with Radio Times magazine in 2018 shared that even though he’s stunned with the gravity of the allegations against the producer, there is something good that came out of it. He said,
“I did three pictures with him. Harvey was a single character in him. But there is one great thing, if it can be described like that, about Harvey and his behavior. It’s that the actresses are safe now.”
He added,
“No producer would dare to do anything sexually, because he knows he’s going to wind up in court, which is exactly where Harvey is.”
Sir Michael Caine lastly concluded that he thought it was terrible and unfair that the young actress who is willing to work does not get a part because she refuses to do something sexual with the producer. The actor added that it happened and there was nothing he could do about it at the time because he was a nobody and he didn’t have the power of the big producer.
In his book Blowing The Bloody Doors Off, the actor mentioned that he is still learning about the basic decency the women have been fighting for years. Blowing The Bloody Doors Off was published in October 2018.
