Neve Campbell Recalls Standing Up To Harvey Weinstein
We all have fun learning of missed opportunities regarding an actor's job. Neve Campbell recently appeared on Dax Sheperd's Armchair Expert podcast and revealed that she turned down offers to play Lara Croft in Tomb Raider and the main character in one of the Alien movies. Matt Damon also recently revealed he turned down a role in James Cameron's original Avatar. Cameron was so adamant about casting Damon that he was offered 10% of the film's gross, but he still opted out. Speaking of Damon, he starred in the 1998 film Rounders, a movie in which Neve was to appear in.
Campbell shocked fans earlier this year when she announced that she is not returning as Sidney Prescott in the next installment of the Scream franchise. She told People magazine: “I did not feel that what I was being offered equated to the value that I bring to this franchise, and have brought to this franchise, for 25 years,” Campbell said. “And as a woman in this business, I think it’s really important for us to be valued and to fight to be valued.”
While on the Armchair Expert podcast Campbell revealed how she lost the role of Jo in Rounders after standing up to its producer Harvey Weinstein during the height of her career.
Beginning in 1996, Campbell appeared in the Scream films which was produced by the Weinstein-owned Dimension Films/Miramax. After filming Scream 2 in the summer of 1997, Weinstein asked Campbell to audition for a part opposite Damon. Despite initially landing the part of Jo, Campbell says the Weinsteins wouldn't give her the role unless she signed on for Scream 3 for the same amount of money as she was paid for Scream 2.
Campbell says, "I said, 'how could you do that? How dare you? That is so not cool.'"
After Scream 2 was released in December of 1997, Weinstein attempted to call Campbell an entire weekend before filming was to be shot in New York for Rounders. Somehow he had found her number, something Campbell says he was known for, and her agents urged her not to answer the calls. She decided to call him back the following Monday.
"This is why I'm not on set right now," she said to him. "This should not have been about you trying to navigate or manipulate me into another contract. We should have been having discussions about the script, the scenes that actually need a re-write, and how to make [Jo] look different than [Party of Five's] Julia Salinger. Those should have been the conversations, not about how to save another penny."
Campbell said Weinstein replied: "'Neve! Neve! You and Gwynny [Paltrow] are the only people who stood up to me! I admire you, I admire you. Don't worry, don't worry about it.' And I never got a job [at Miramax] again."
Neve Campbell recently revealed on Dax Sheperd's Armchair Expert podcast how she stood up to Harvey Weinstein and lost a starring role alongside Matt Damon in the 1998 film Rounders. Here are two clippings from '98 that hinted about the ordeal. pic.twitter.com/xhXPhvdSgl
- ℕ𝕆𝕋 𝕀ℕ 𝕄𝕐 𝕄𝕆𝕍𝕀𝔼 (@GeocitiesBlues) December 8, 2022
Aside from the Scream franchise, the only other film Campbell did for Miramax was 54 released in late 1998, which she did not promote.
The role in Rounders was given to Gretch Mol and was released in September of 1998 to mixed reviews. After it was reported that Wes Craven wouldn't direct Scream 3 unless Never returned, she was given a $5 million price tag to continue as Sidney Prescott.
SOURCE: Twitter | Armchair Expert Podcast