Harvey Weinstein: Americans need to come together
In The Zone: Weinstein Co. studio head Harvey Weinstein discusses his powerful new short-film series, the Lexus Short Films, and his views on the 2016 election
NEW YORK – Harvey Weinstein is the co-mastermind behind independent film giants Miramax and The Weinstein Company. The Queens native, who spoke to us about the his company’s partnership with Lexus International, has been producing films for over 30 years but is still as passionate today as he was when he first started.
“There’s still that sense of discovery when you’re sitting in the dark theater and then all of the sudden you see images that take you on a journey," Weinstein told us. "I think one of the reasons I’ve been successful is when I sit and watch a movie, whether it’s a such film like the Lexus series, or bigger, independent film or just a Hollywood movie I surrender in the dark. I actually call it that, and maybe I should call it that for my autobiography – surrendering in the dark,” said Weinstein.
Lexus features four short films, one of them, “Friday Night” features Paris in the midst of a city wide attack. The Academy Award winner said it resonated with him.
“I had many friends in Paris, you know I’m going to allude to it because the film alludes to it, you know to the attack, and I remember, you know, getting on the phone and calling people, Americans, who were there at the time. I had friends who missed it by 15 minutes and I’ve been through the 9/11 situation, and I had a meeting that day that was downtown and it got moved an hour, and it saved a whole lot of people. So, I think this is an unbelievable point of view movie. You follow the POV of somebody trying to, you know, find out, save, you know, it’s like a thriller,” the studio executive said.
Weinstein has been a big donor to the Democratic party, and held a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton this year. The filmmaker weighed in on the FBI re-opening and then closing the investigation days before the election.
“If I had to make a movie, it’s a bad movie because you don’t clear somebody in July and then not have insufficient information to re-open the case. All it took them was 9 days to go through that case. Why didn’t he just take the 9 days to do it, you know, and then he’d have more significant, he’d either say, ‘Jesus, there’s nothing here guys.’ You know, but it sounds like there’s leaks in the FBI. She unfairly paid the price because she was way ahead in the polls. She was going to move the election to a more bring America together and less competition. He actually forced- if there’s a bad feeling in America, she would have had a week to just bring everybody together and I know that that was her plan if she won, bring us together, but I hope Donald Trump realizes that in his last speeches today, you know, I have nothing against him personally, but in his last speeches today if he prepares the country, no matter what happens, we must come together as a country whoever wins.”
But regardless of the election outcome, Weinstein urged Americans unite.
“We’re all Americans.”
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