David Parfitt, who worked with Harvey Weinstein as a producer on “My Week with Marilyn,” has accused the disgraced studio head of physically assaulting him during production.
(Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images)
Parfitt came forward with his claim in a new documentary called “Working With Weinstein” that will air in the United Kingdom on Tuesday night, Deadline Hollywood reports. As Parfitt describes it, the assault was the result of artistic disagreements between the producer and Weinstein, who tried to micro-manage the award-winning musical.
“When we actually got through the main shoot and into the test, he decided it wasn’t enough Marilyn’s film and that he wanted more Marilyn,” Parfitt recalls. “The scores came in at the end of the test and they were very good, and I think he’d expected it to be not good. In his fury about it doing so well when he thought it wouldn’t, he physically assaulted me. We were talking at the back of the theater after the audience had left, but the Miramax crowd were around, and he pinned me up against a Coke machine and threatened all sorts of stuff. It was very scary. But he was just furious that the film in our version had worked.”
According Parfitt Weinstein wanted “My Week With Marilyn” to include more musical scenes than the producer did. When Parfitt ignored his advice it made Weinstein furious to the point of the rage he described. In a response to Parfitt’s claims, a spokeswoman for Weinstein noted his disagreements with Parfitt but claimed his story was “provably untrue and outrageous fiction.”
(Photo credit: HECTOR MATA/AFP/Getty Images)
“Mr. Weinstein categorically denies Mr. Parfitt’s claims as provably untrue and outrageous fiction. Mr. Parfitt and Mr. Weinstein had creative differences and any conflict between them was solely over their different visions for the film,” the statement said. “While they had a series of spirited arguments where Mr. Weinstein made a lot of stupid remarks that he wishes he could take back, nothing physical happened.”
The documentary will explore Weinstein’s work on films in the UK spanning across 30 years and investigate how he managed to keep his accusers quiet for so long.