Dublin actress Fionnuala Flanagan believes Harvey Weinstein “got what he deserves” and warned that the casting couch is “alive and well” in Hollywood.
The Irish acting legend worked with former Miramax boss Weinstein on two movies and said she was glad he’d finally been brought to justice. Weinstein, first jailed in 2020, was last week sentenced to 16 more years for the rape and sexual assault of another victim known as Jane Doe 1.
Dublin icon Fionnuala told Irish Sunday Mirror: “I did two pictures for him [Transamerica, The Others], but his film making days are over. It is about time that people like Harvey got his comeuppance.
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“He’s just been handed out a lengthy prison sentence in LA. He’s already serving a lengthy prison sentence [handed down] in New York.
“He got his comeuppance because of the crimes he committed.” Fionnuala, who is currently starring in RTE drama Smother, added: “I mean the casting couch continues, I’m sure it does.
“At 81 years of age I doubt very much if anyone is going to inveigle me or try to inveigle me onto a casting couch.” The IFTA lifetime achievement award-winner said Hollywood is only catching up on giving female directors a shot.
She revealed: “It was well known... for a great number of years women didn’t get to direct pictures. I worked with Cali Kouri, who wrote Thelma and Louise, one of the best female pictures with two women as the leads.
“Kelly wrote that and they wouldn’t let her direct it, Ridley Scott directed it. Cali had to wait many years until she got to direct, Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood which I was in.
“It has taken years for women to be taken seriously as directors and to get work here in LA.” Fionnuala’s impressive back catalogue includes Blood Brothers, Waking Ned, The Guard and Star Trek to name a few.
She stars in the upcoming prequel to the Hunger Games as young Coriolanus Snow’s strict grandmother. The Rich Man Poor Man Emmy award-winner has an impressive career spanning almost 50 years.
She heaped praise on Murder She Wrote producer and actress Angela Lansbury who died last October, aged 96. Recalling working with the trailblazer on the hit series, she said Angela was in a league of her own.
She said: “Oh, she was terrific, she was a fabulous producer. At six o’clock the car was at the door of the studio and ready or not the day was done. You never worked after six, she was wonderful in that way.”
Fionnuala revealed Angela never bothered with learning lines, as the scripts were all similar, relying on cue cards instead. She continued: “She could look at you in a scene and then look away to the cue card, just at the right moment, and say, ‘Did you happen to notice that there was a body as you were coming down the stairs?’
“She just had it down pat. I remember one in Ireland we shot, A Killing in Cork. The two of us were walking and the guys with the cue cards were in the bushes, on the side of the path.
“The steadicam operator was in front of us walking backwards, that was a bit of a trip.” Fionnula met husband Garret O’Connor while on tour with the play Lovers and they wed in 1972.
Psychiatrist Garret died at the couple’s Co Wicklow home in 2015. She still resides in their Hollywood Hills mansion. She said: “Of course I still miss him, he was my life partner and friend, my lover and I miss him but you just have to move on in life.
“I’m grateful for the time we had together, you just move on. My husband believed what I did was much more important than what he did... and I said all the ways he helped people was far more important.
“I get lovely roles and that’s part of it and I get to work with some terrific directors, but it’s the next best thing to selling snake oil. I think there are other things to do that are much more worthy and help people.”
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