‘Carol’ lesbian sex scenes feared to be kept by Harvey Weinstein
Insiders who worked on the movie Carol have shared worries that Harvey Weinstein kept unused lesbian sex scenes between Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara.
In a Hollywood Reporter feature on how lawyers are demanding more specific protections for their clients during nude scenes and want to sue for leaked footage, the accusations against Weinstein are made.
The article alleges that sources involved with the 2015 Todd Haynes drama Carol, told the Hollywood Reporter that Weinstein, who distributed the movie, kept nude scenes from the movie for his own personal collection.
According to the piece, if a shot scene doesn’t make the final cut most legal agreements call for the producer to use “good faith efforts” to delete the scene.
But one Carol insider reportedly told the paper “I don’t even think it’s possible to destroy anything in the digital age, the idea of anything being erased from existence is naive.”
While Weinstein’s PR representatives told PinkNews that all of the allegations are false.
The representative said: “Todd Haynes did this in one take and there was no unused footage. Miramax and Haynes felt the footage as it was done was perfect. There never was extra, and the suggestion isn’t true, and Mr. Weinstein does not have any footage at all.”
In the aftermath of the #MeToo movement and when the allegations against Weinstein began to surface, Blanchett spoke about his involvement with the film.
In an interview with Variety, Blanchett – who has spoken in solidarity with women who have accused Weinstein of sexual harassment – insisted he had little involvement.
She said: “He was brought on as the producer on many films that I had absolutely no say on. I didn’t have a creative or functional relationship with him.”
In a comment on the piece, Carol producer Elizabeth Karlsen added that Weinstein was given an Executive Producer credit on the film as “one of the non negotiable terms of the distribution agreement.”
Karlsen added: “He was not a producer on the film. Neither he nor TWC were involved in the development of the film nor had any script, editorial, casting or other type of creative involvement in the film whatsoever.”
“This is a frequent and frustrating misrepresentation of Harvey Weinstein and his role – he was a distributor, who stole the producing credit from the actual producers who sourced, developed, filmed and fully created the work as we did with CAROL.
“He simply released and distributed it into cinemas.”
Blanchett also appeared to confirm to Variety that she had been targeted by Weinstein.
Asked if Weinstein ever sexually harassed her, Blanchett said: “With me, yes.
“I think he really primarily preyed, like most predators, on the vulnerable. I mean I got a bad feeling from him.
“He would often say to me, ‘We’re not friends’, [because] I wouldn’t do what he was asking me to do.”
Another source, who is a lawyer, spoke to the Hollywood Reporter discussed the security risk that is carried with nude and explicit scenes.
“We used to say, ‘You’ve got to destroy it,’ And they said, ‘We’ll keep it in a secure location.’ But things get hacked, things get stolen, so we definitely push for outtakes, trims, deleted scenes, alternative takes — all that stuff — to be destroyed and for the destruction to be confirmed to us in writing.”
“[But] Some intern puts it out. That’s up [online] forever. So we need to be able to force the studio to go take that down, or even threaten injunctive relief or liquidated damages.”
