Beginning with 1994’s Clerks, director Kevin Smith worked with now-disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein for over a decade.
Following the continuing reports of Weinstein’s sexual harassment and assault, Smith has said that he will donate the residuals from his Weinstein-backed films to the nonprofit Women in Film, which advocates for the advancement of women in the industry.
“My entire career is tied up with the man. It’s been a weird fucking week. I just wanted to make some fucking movies, that’s it,” Smith said on his Hollywood Babble-On podcast. “That’s why I came, that’s why I made Clerks.”
Weinstein, at both Miramax and The Weinstein Co., was behind the majority of Smith’s early films, including the Clerks movies, Mall Rats, Dogma and 2008’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno.
Related Stories
“No fucking movie is worth all this. Like, my entire career, fuck it, take it. It’s wrapped up in something really fucking horrible,” said Smith, adding: “I’m not looking for sympathy. I know it’s not my fault, but I didn’t fucking help. I sat out there talking about this man like he was a hero, like he was my friend, like he was my father and shit like that.”
Following the initial explosive New York Times report on Weinstein, Smith took to Twitter to to say: “He financed the first 14 years of my career — and now I know while I was profiting, others were in terrible pain. It makes me feel ashamed.”
In the podcast, Smith said people replied to this statement, saying that he should give the money he earned from the films back. “Well, I don’t have money from 20 years ago, do you? But that being said, I work in an industry where thankfully there are dividends that come out of a movie for the rest of your life,” said Smith. “The first thing I feel like I can do is … I don’t want that anymore.”
“He came to this on his own,” said a spokesperson for WIF in an email, adding that Women in Film did not know about Smith’s planned donation. Smith and WIF will be discussing specifics together.
Women both inside and out of the industry, including actresses Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and Cara Delevingne, have continued to come forward with their own stories about Weinstein’s harassment. Weinstein has since been terminated from his position at TWC.
