MIRA SORVINO, AN actress who made headlines last year when she was one of many women who bravely came forward to accuse Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault has made headlines again.
The 1996 Oscar winning actress revealed in an interview that a director gagged her with a condom. She was 16-years-old at the time.
In order to scare me for this horror movie scene, he tied me to a chair, he bruised my arm—I was, like, 16 years old—and then he gagged me. 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 says, ‘Sorry for the prophylactic.’ He gagged me with a condom.
What is wrong with these people?
I was too young to know, thank god, what a condom tasted like, but it was so inappropriate. What the heck was a casting director doing with a condom in his pocket at an audition? That was one of my introductions to how the acting system works.
Sorvino went on to reveal that there are more directors out there who seem to view women little more than cheap meat to salivate over:
There’s big director who’s got Oscars and is known for his social justice profile with some of these movies literally said to me at an end-stage audition meeting, ‘You know, as I look at you, my mind can’t help traveling from the artistic possibilities [to] the sexual.’ I think my mouth just opened, and I smiled nervously back…
Sorvino further explained how worthlessness she felt upon realising that her talent as an actress was irrelevant to the men in power.
I thought this was a legit meeting. I thought you had me here because you thought I was talented or that I brought something good for this role, not that you were here, fishing to see if I would have an affair with you. I didn’t get that part. I know for a fact that’s why I didn’t get that part.
Her refusal to pawn off her body and soul to play the sexist Hollywood game is admirable.
It’s not the only time that Mira’s fight for dignity and respect lost her a role and income. This year, it was revealed that her rejection of Harvey Weinstein also led to her losing a role in the biggest movie franchise of the 21st century – The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Sorvino and Ashley Judd were blacklisted from being considered for roles with Weinstein falsely telling director Peter Jackson that both women were “a nightmare to work with” on set.
It’s frustrating for her now but here’s hoping that Jackson and others make a point of seeking Mira out for roles in their upcoming projects.
