00:00I was young and it was one of my first movies and I'm going to set and I auditioned and
00:04everybody had to come in their bikini, got the role, he goes, yeah, yeah, so the bikini top, yeah, just
00:10lose it, it doesn't work, okay, everybody, action, I'm like, you can take my bikini top off and, and he
00:15goes, yeah, yeah, you got a 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. So we want to stop that from happening to
00:30young actresses.
00:31That's actress and legend Rosanna Arquette. She was one of the first women to blow the whistle on Harvey Weinstein
00:37when she spoke to The New Yorker about her harassment. Now, decades after being passed over for jobs and spied
00:43on.
00:43You think you were spied on, right? I know we have proof. We have proof that he did spy on
00:49me.
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.
01:07Each week, I set out to prove myself wrong by talking to an expert who might not have all the
01:13answers, but 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, having dinner with
02:00him at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
02:02And I arrive at the hotel, and they say, Mr. Weinstein will see you upstairs.
02:07And I was like, I immediately went, he 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.
02:15Oh, 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.
02:23And he grabbed, and I was like, you know, and I just went, and he goes, you're making a very
02:28big 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, Arquette 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 that you had been spied on the majority of your career?
02:53No, but it all makes sense.
02:54Agents pressured her to be quiet, even female ones.
02:57I had told people this, and nobody would listen, you know, and then they said, you better keep your mouth
03:01shut.
03:01But she wasn't the only actress whose career was damaged by Weinstein's desire for payback.
03:06Daryl Hannah, Mira Sorvino, Asia Argento, and Rose McGowan were 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, who 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 because 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.
03:34Were there other actresses?
03:35All of us.
03:35Everybody who came out were affected.
03:37You see Peter Jackson coming out and saying that he was talked out of seeing Ashley Judd or Mira Sorvino
03:45for Lord of the Rings.
03:46So we all have compared notes, and it's the same story.
03:50Did you ever think about the roles that if you weren't retaliated against that you would have or could have
03:55played?
03:55Yeah, there were a few, but 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 when she confided in New Yorker journalist Ronan Farrow and
04:14connected him to other actresses who were ready to speak out about Weinstein.
04:18Did you know that you were going to be one of the first voices to come out to start Me
04:22Too?
04:22I didn't know that.
04:24I did know that this was important to talk about, to gather women who I respected and were respected in
04:31the industry and discuss these themes.
04:33When Ronan approached you, did you fear that you were going to face backlash again for coming forward?
04:38Because you had been blacklisted, you say, throughout your career for coming forward about Harvey.
04:44So were you afraid your career was going to suffer even more?
04:47Yeah, I was, but I thought it was important enough.
04:50Really, I'm doing this for my daughter.
04:51I'm doing this for young women who are coming up in this business who need to feel safe.
04:56A lot of people try to shame you and say, well, did that really happen, or you're lying.
04:59And what we are seeing is men are shaking in their boots, and they're so enraged because this is a
05:05paradigm shift.
05:07It's here.
05:08Me Too is causing a paradigm shift in Hollywood to focus on female-centric stories.
05:13That's something that Arquette did early on in her career, but she didn't realize how rare it was.
05:17It's interesting because the movie I did with Madonna called Just Be Seeking Susan 30 years ago was written by
05:24a woman,
05:25directed by a woman, produced by women, and about women.
05:29And the studio head was Barbara Boyle at Orion Pictures who found the project and was our executive.
05:35It was groundbreaking and the first of its kind.
05:38Did you ever make another movie with that many women involved again?
05:41Not like that, no.
05:43Except, wait, and side-swiped.
05:45And now next year, it's all going to be all female directors.
05:48In her new YouTube Premium series, Arquette joins comedian Carly Craig and actress Chelsea Frey in a multi-generational comedy
05:56about online dating created by Craig herself.
05:59Arquette plays their fiery single mother dating on Tinder, and she pushes her daughter to swipe right on all 252
06:07of her matches.
06:08Tell me about Sides to Life. What drew you to the project in the first place?
06:12Carly is the creator of the show, and she really did go on like 269 dates or something, and she
06:19wrote this show based on that.
06:21And what drew you to Mary, the mother?
06:24Because Mary is an immature child. She was fun to play. It was really a stretch for me.
06:32You know, it was so fun to laugh and do. You know, I've played a lot of dark characters for
06:36a lot of years, so I love being light and having fun.
06:39So for that, I'm looking forward to people tuning in and to the show and falling in love with these
06:44characters.
06:45Let's be honest. After being blacklisted from Hollywood, Arquette deserves to do a comedy.
06:49In the last year, she has taken on the role of Hollywood changemaker.
06:53And I don't know about you, but I am so happy she's back on our screens.
