My time at the Weinstein Company and interacting with Harvey Weinstein

In my sophomore year of college, I took a leave of absence. At first, this leave of absence was taken in order to balance my grades. This semester break enabled me some GPA-saving opportunities that were very difficult had I stayed.

I also had some issues to deal with at the time. “At the time” lol.

Upon leaving the semester, a move that was highly stressful to my education-obsessed parents, I began to search for some options for what to do with my time. as staying and being unproductive was not going to be an option. This was a time in my life where I began to take a lot of risks and find a new world.

I moved into an apartment with my generous friend who let me stay on his couch rent-free. This was epically large of him and I consider this to be one of the most interesting and important times of my life.

He is a brilliant friend of mine who had left my college a semester (or two?) earlier. He was an extremely dedicated student who literally failed classes because he’d be assigned a 5-page paper, write 35 pages, think it was trash, and never turn it in. Allowing his teachers to think he didn’t care or was negligent. In reality, he would be absolutely pouring his heart and soul into things and doing so tremendous academic merit and vigor . Anyways, he left the school earlier, and I joined him as a guest on his couch.

This pivotal time for me did not begin very optimistically. It seemed like I was in a dangerous place. I was very confident that I was going to be fine, but this sentiment was not widely agreed upon.

My then on - and off-again but very serious long-term girlfriend ended up facilitating a life-changing opportunity. It was absolutely amazing. Through her sister’s boyfriend, she helped me obtain an internship at a company called The Weinstein Company. You’ve probably never heard of it, but at the time it was quite a prestigious position at a respectable company.

I did not even know what Weinstein Company was or the magnitude of what I’d been given. The position would involve being a complete and utter unpaid errand boy who paid his own transportation, but I got to read new scripts and write coverage for them.

Coverage is an industry-standard summary format that enabled production companies to quickly read a page summarizing the script. This would enable them to

I did learn a lot about power dynamics and disgusting office politics and dynamics at that job. My “boss” who I directly reported to, was an absolutely incredible individual who went to both my college and my ridiculously small quaint boarding school. This was undoubtedly a huge factor in my receiving this internship… as well as the recommendation from my ex-girlfriend’s sister’s boyfriend. PRIVILEGE .

I was quite unqualified to be in this position but I was also simultaneously a great candidate to do exceptionally well. My passion for filmmaking and my desire to learn left me with an insatiable desire to impress, do work, and learn.

And I did all those things. I would ask for homework when I went home, and I’d read extra scripts and shock everyone with the degree to which I was delivering work. I’d read 600 pages after my 10-hour workday and have a fully written summary written by work the next day. I loved this job.

I use the word job loosely here because 1) It was unpaid 2) My transportation wasn’t covered 3) My boss would eat handfuls of almonds out of a bag on my desk because he was out of touch with economic hardships. At the time those handfuls of almonds were painful, and he’d grab them while we were shooting the shit, which I greatly enjoyed. That dude is still epic to me and a hero.

In retrospect, I was able to piece together components of how the office ran and how things were.

OK THE PART YOU MAY BE HERE FOR

Harvey Weinstein instilled a tremendous amount of fear throughout the office. He wasn’t there regularly, as he was toggling between LA and New York offices.

His presence would be announced as a possibility before it happened. “Harvey may be stopping in.” or “Harvey will around be busy be working”. This was always instructed to a hilariously diligent and hardworking office.

This was such a focused group of maniacal workaholics- it was absolutely crazy to say this to them. Never was there a peep other than typing keyboards and work calls when such warnings were issues.

Harvey Weinstein, seated next to another predator. I featured this particular photo because the story below is about me as a scared intern. I’m thinking of a young 22 year old named Monica, interning for a man much more powerful than Harvey.

My time there went mediocrely well with some ups and downs due to the aforementioned issues. I would like to talk about the dynamic of Harvey Weinstein and his presence.

I did not interact with him very much but have a couple of iconic moments where I interacted. Firstly, there was undoubtedly a culture of fear surrounding his presence and existence. Grown human beings would act like 3rd graders when the mean principal strolled into the classroom. Mrs. Trunchbull vibes. However, there was simultaneously a great adoration and worship and respect for him that accompanied the palpable feelings of fear he generated.

This is a personal experience story about how I believe Harvey Weinstein “gets off “ on fear. I had the most meager and small errand to run. I had to purchase brads to hold together scripts. I have attached a photo below for context as to what that is. So Harvey was in the office that day and this was a very scary fact for me. So I was happy to be sent off into the Tribeca streets on a mission to Staples. What a delight. Unfortunately, as I arrived at the elevator, and the sole way we exited the building, I was told, hold on Harvey is wrapping up a meeting in his office.

A brad, a small wire nail with a small, often asymmetrical head. I played an indispensable role at the Weinstein company. Without me, the scripts would have been loose pages.

I looked through the glass doors and he was surrounded by a group of doting individuals, laughing and socializing around him. He looked like the life of the party. This illusion was sewn together by fear money and power. Anyway, I was very concerned that I had to wait for Harvey to this impromptu standing chat session. There was an assistant physically holding the elevator door open, to prevent it from descending to any other floor. I waited for Harvey’s meeting to wrap up, standing by the elevator, for no less than 10 minutes. Finally, the glass doors swung open and he and his paid entourage came out of the office.

We all entered the elevator. There was bustling energy that was carried into the elevator. The elevator was jam-packed, probably 8-10 people if I recall correctly. It was not a big elevator. Harvey was surrounded by people kissing his ass, laughing at his joke, being flirty, and giving him reverence, while calling for his attention. I was in the elevator, avoiding eye contact, eager to get out to the New York city streets were I could take a break from office dynamics and the threat of being pathetically inept in front of authority figures. A looming threat.

As the packed elevator began its descent, Harvey picks me of all people, clearly, the only individual in the elevator who wanted no part of speaking to him, to converse with.

“What’re you up to right now, what do we have you doing”

“Um, I’m going to Staples to buy some Brads.” I’ve inserted a video caricaturing what I was like when answering this question.

I don’t remember his exact response but tonally it was something like. “Good. Ok” End of conversation, because the ride was so short. I wish I had been brave enough to say what I should have said.

Anyways, the short elevator ride ended. The elevator door was held open for him, he walked first. The door to the building was already being held open and through its open doors you could see a yellow taxi was waiting. Also with the door also held open. From the elevator, you could see the taxi seat.

Another tidbit..

A lot of times I’d be shuttled all around the city by this amazing lady to do “pick up orders” for cell phone chargers/ sushi and other miscellaneous items that Harvey needed, urgently and fast. This was before the era of pick up orders and every restaurant having electronic take out so normalized. This guy really had it set up in my eyes. He was also clearly monstrous and feared in a way that I did not admire, and did not feel was essential to high level production.

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AS ALWAYS!!!!! Thank you so much for reading, it truly means the world to me. I cannot overemphasize this. If you wanna leave a comment or share. That would be immense as I literally do this everyday just for people to read it and hopefully enjoy or something I don’t even know. I do it for me too. But its nothing without the hope that you will read it. So thank you so much for being here