‘Working With Weinstein’ Doc Secures Just Under 1M Viewers With New Revelations And Interviews
Associated Press Channel 4’s documentary Working with Weinstein, which provided a number of revelat..
Associated Press
Channel 4’s documentary Working with Weinstein, which provided a number of revelations of physical and sexual assault by the disgraced movie mogul, was watched by just under 1M people in a 10pm slot on Tuesday night.
The doc, which was produced by Tigerlily Films was one of the first long-form docs on the scandal, averaged 850,000 viewers in the UK between 10pm and 11pm with a share of 6.4%. This was in line with the British broadcaster’s average for that timeslot.
The film was directed by Alice Perman and exec produced by Tigerlily’s Natasha Dack-Ojumu and Nikki Parrott and Angus McQueen. In addition to revelations of physical assault on My Week With Marilyn from Oscar-winning producer David Parfitt, it featured interviews with former Miramax and Weinstein Company executives including Zelda Perkins, Laura Madden and Gaia Elkington and The Crying Game producer Stephen Woolley. It documented a number of allegations against Weinstein as well as his early relationship with the British film industry and his prevalence for turning up to set on the days when sex scenes were being shot.
Gaia Elkington, a former assistant at The Weinstein Company in London, detailed a nasty incident as Weinstein was leaving London. She tells of how wearing only his “knickers” he “smacked her across the room” as he was leaving his house before firing her at Heathrow Airport, saying “just don’t work for me anymore you fxxxing mongoloid cxxt”.
Former Miramax staff Laura Madden, who accused Weinstein of sexual harassment during the 1990s, said: “It’s taken twenty years to speak but at least it’s come out. Had this come out 15 years ago, it would have never come out. There’s been people trying to break this story for 20 years but it’s just taken this length of time. More importantly, it’s brought a conversation into the public domain that will hopefully help all of the industries that just don’t have a voice.”
Zelda Perkins added: “For decades, we were all made to feel that Harvey Weinstein was above the law and finally Laura and I are able to talk openly about his behaviour toward us and our colleagues. Everybody was and is so controlled by Harvey. I don’t think it would have come out five years ago, I think Harvey was still powerful enough and I don’t think the environment was right. It’s reached a tipping point.”
Lawyer Jill Greenfield, who is representing a number of women in a UK Civil Court Action, concluded: “He may be or have been a powerful man but it doesn’t matter because he’s not above the law, he’s just a man.”
The film ends with a long coda that states: “Laura Madden, Zelda Perkins, David Parfitt and Gaia Elkington’s allegations are untrue. Ms. Perkins chose not to report any of her claims to the police at the time and instead demanded money…there was never any prohibition of reporting any of her class to the police nor was there in any other settlement agreement relating to Mr. Weinstein. The use of Non-Disclosure Agreements is standard in the industry. Mr. Weinstein unequivocally denies he ever engaged in criminal misconduct of any kind.”
