As one of dozens of actresses who have accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct, Mira Sorvino became a leading face of the #MeToo movement, long after she abruptly dropped off the radar following her Oscar win for Mighty Aphrodite. Sorvino’s claims were supported by a confirmation from director Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) that, indeed, Weinstein had blacklisted Sorvino from roles after she resisted his sexual advances. In a new Hollywood Foreign Press Association podcast, HFPA In Conversation, Sorvino reveals that Weinstein was only one of many powerful figures who sexually harassed her.
A few claims made by Sorvino bear particular mention, including her account of how a casting director used a condom to gag her when she was 16 years old:
“In order to scare me for this horror movie scene, he tied me to a chair, he bruised my arm, and I was 16 years old, and then he gagged me, and I was all game because I’m trying to be scared for the scene. And at the end he takes the gag out of my mouth and he said, ‘Sorry for the prophylactic,’ so he had gagged me with a condom. It was so inappropriate, and what the heck was a casting director doing with a condom in his pocket in an audition?”
In addition, Sorvino made allegations against an unnamed “big director who has gotten Oscars and is known for his social justice profile.” She accused him of sexually harassing her during an audition while stating that his mind kept shifting “from the artistic possibilities to the sexual.” Sorvino also relayed how the casting-couch phenomenon was so commonplace throughout Hollywood that friends told her, “You’re going to absolutely have to have sex with all kinds of people to advance your career.”
There’s no word yet on who the unnamed director might be, given that Sorvino must have auditioned for an untold number of parts, but one thing is certain. Her dad, Paul Sorvino, will probably give paparazzi an earful and threaten to bust some kneecaps if anyone manages to track him down over this news.
(Via The HFPA In Conversation)