00:00I was young and it was one of my first movies and I'm going to set and I auditioned, you
00:04know, everybody had to come in their bikini, got the role, he goes, yeah, yeah, so the bikini top, yeah,
00:09just lose it, it doesn't work.
00:10Okay, everybody, action, I'm like, can you take my bikini top off and then he goes, yeah, yeah, you got
00:16a problem with that?
00:16That intimidation at that moment, having to make that decision right there on the spot and I did it and
00:24then I come back and he plays Nola on my tits.
00:27So we want to stop that from happening to young actresses.
00:31That's actress and legend Rosanna Arquette.
00:33She was one of the first women to blow the whistle on Harvey Weinstein when she spoke to The New
00:38Yorker about her harassment.
00:39Now, decades after being passed over for jobs and spied on.
00:43You think you were spied on, right?
00:45I know we have proof. We have proof that he did spy on me.
00:50She's back on our screens in the female-centric comedy Sideswiped.
00:53With everything going on in the world right now, having something to laugh about is refreshing for all of us.
00:59But what's it like to be a Hollywood A-lister and then suddenly blacklisted?
01:03I'm Elisa Kreisinger and as a white woman on the internet, I have a lot of opinions.
01:08Each week, I set out to prove myself wrong by talking to an expert who might not have all the
01:13answers,
01:13but they certainly know more than I do.
01:15That's why this is Strong Opinions Loosely Held.
01:19Okay, for those of you who don't know, Rosanna Arquette is an American legend.
01:24She starred alongside Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan.
01:27She was in the cult classic Pulp Fiction, and she had two hit pop songs written about her in the
01:3480s.
01:34You know, Rosanna by Toto and In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel.
01:38Take me all the way, da-na-na, Rosanna, yeah!
01:43I love that song.
01:44But when she was at the height of her career, she was invited to Harvey Weinstein's hotel room for a
01:49meeting.
01:49Can you talk about the original harassment?
01:51The original harassment happened just like a lot of the women.
01:54I had a film that I was supposed to do and get a new script from Harvey,
01:59having dinner with him at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
02:02And I arrive at the hotel and they say,
02:05Mr. Weinstein will see you upstairs.
02:06And I was like, I immediately went,
02:08you felt that danger, danger.
02:10You feel it, and you know.
02:12And I was like, ah, you know, and he opens in his white bathrobe.
02:16Oh, Rosanna, I can't move my neck.
02:18I can't move my neck.
02:19And I was like, oh, I have a massage for you.
02:22He goes, no, no, no, no, Rosanna.
02:24And he grabbed, and I was like, ah, you know, and I just went.
02:26And he goes, you're making a very big mistake.
02:29And I said, I'll never be that girl.
02:32And I went down the elevator, and it was a significant change in life.
02:36After she refused his advances,
02:38Arquette says that Weinstein ruined her career in retaliation.
02:41We have proof that he did spy on me.
02:44How did you know?
02:45Ronan, the New Yorker, found it all.
02:47Oh, really?
02:48Mm-hmm.
02:49So you didn't find out until a year ago
02:50that you had been spied on the majority of your career.
02:53No, but it all makes sense.
02:53Agents pressured her to be quiet, even female ones.
02:56I had told people this, and nobody would listen.
02:59You know, and then they said, you better keep your mouth shut.
03:01But she wasn't the only actress whose career was damaged
03:04by Weinstein's desire for payback.
03:06Daryl Hannah, Mira Sorvino, Asia Argento, and Rose McGowan
03:10were also vocal about Weinstein's abuse,
03:13and they saw their career suffer as a result.
03:16But there were other actresses, you say, too,
03:17who you came up with who were similarly blacklisted?
03:20Yeah, Daryl Hannah.
03:21Now, Daryl Hannah's story is really, really important in all of this
03:25because she had a witness.
03:28She said no to his advances?
03:29Yes.
03:29And then she couldn't get work after that?
03:31No, badly.
03:33It was terrible.
03:33Were there other actresses?
03:35All of us.
03:35Everybody who came out were affected.
03:37You see Peter Jackson coming out and saying
03:39that he was talked out of seeing Ashley Judd
03:43or Mira Sorvino for Lord of the Rings.
03:47So we all have compared notes, and it's the same story.
03:50Do you ever think about the roles that,
03:52if you weren't retaliated against,
03:54that you would have or could have played?
03:55Yeah, there were a few.
03:57There were a few.
03:58But it is what it is, and I guess that's my path.
04:01So I don't feel resentful.
04:02I feel angry for the women who were raped.
04:05I really, really do.
04:06Last year, Arquette helped spark the international Me Too movement
04:09when she confided in New Yorker journalist Ronan Farrow
04:13and connected him to other actresses
04:15who were ready to speak out about Weinstein.
04:18Did you know that you were going to be
04:19one of the first voices to come out to start Me Too?
04:22I didn't know that.
04:24I did know that this was important to talk about,
04:27to gather women who I respected
04:30and were respected in the industry
04:32and discuss these themes.
04:33When Ronan approached you,
04:35did you fear that you were going to face backlash again
04:37for coming forward?
04:39Because you had been blacklisted, you say,
04:41throughout your career for coming forward about Harvey.
04:44So were you afraid your career was going to suffer even more?
04:47Yeah, I was.
04:48But I thought it was important enough.
04:50Really, I'm doing this for my daughter.
04:51I'm doing this for young women
04:53who are coming up in this business
04:54who need to feel safe.
04:55A lot of people try to shame you and say,
04:57well, did that really happen?
04:58Or you're lying.
04:59And what we are seeing is men are shaking in their boots
05:02and they're so enraged
05:04because this is a paradigm shift.
05:07It's here.
05:08Me Too is causing a paradigm shift in Hollywood
05:10to focus on female-centric stories.
05:13That's something that Arquette did early on in her career,
05:15but she didn't realize how rare it was.
05:17It's interesting because the movie I did with Madonna
05:19called Just Will Be Seeking Susan 30 years ago
05:22was written by a woman, directed by a woman,
05:26produced by women, and about women.
05:29And the studio head was Barbara Boyle at Orion Pictures
05:32who found the project and was our executive.
05:35It was groundbreaking and the first of its kind.
05:38Did you ever make another movie
05:39with that many women involved again?
05:41Not like that, no.
05:42Except, wait, and sideswiped.
05:44And now, next year, it's all going to be all female directors.
05:48In her new YouTube Premium series,
05:50Arquette joins comedian Carly Craig
05:52and actress Chelsea Frey
05:54in a multi-generational comedy about online dating
05:57created by Craig herself.
05:59Arquette plays their fiery single mother
06:01dating on Tinder,
06:02and she pushes her daughter to swipe right
06:05on all 252 of her matches.
06:08Tell me about Sideswipe.
06:10What drew you to the project in the first place?
06:12Carly is the creator of the show,
06:14and she really did go on, like, 269 dates or something,
06:18and she wrote this show based on that.
06:21And what drew you to Mary, the mother?
06:24Because Mary is an immature child who...
06:28She was fun to play.
06:31It was really a stretch for me.
06:32You know, it was so fun to laugh and do...
06:34You know, I've played a lot of dark characters
06:36for a lot of years,
06:37so I love being light and having fun.
06:39So for that, I'm looking forward to people
06:42tuning in and to the show
06:43and falling in love with these characters.
06:45Let's be honest.
06:46After being blacklisted from Hollywood,
06:48Arquette deserves to do a comedy.
06:49In the last year,
06:50she has taken on the role of Hollywood changemaker.
06:53And I don't know about you,
06:55but I am so happy she's back on our screens.
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