Filmmaker Taylor Sheridan would have “killed” his movie Wind River if he was unable to cut ties from The Weinstein Company (TWC).
The writer and director behind the drama, about the murder and sexual assault of a young Native American woman on a reservation, had the organization’s name stripped from the film in the wake of TWC co-founder Harvey Weinstein being accused of sexual assault and harassment by over 50 women.
The TWC logo will not appear on Wind River’s home marketplace or streaming platforms and the proceeds which would have gone to the company will instead be donated to the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, which works to provide safety for Native women.
Discussing the situation, Sheridan admitted he wouldn’t want the project to succeed if it had kept TWC’s name.
“I called TWC president David Glasser and said, ‘I’m going to demand something of you and you are going to get absolutely nothing in return. And you’re going to do it, because it’s the right thing to do,’” he recalled to Deadline. “To David’s credits, he agreed.”
Opening up about what he would have done if Glasser had refused his demands, Sheridan continued: “I said, ‘If my movie’s going to die, I’ll be the one to kill it.’ I will Alan Smithee (a pseudonym used by directors who disown their films), take my name off it, and publicly denounce it. I would have said, don’t go see this movie, don’t rent it, don’t watch it. If he was going to remain publicly attached, if he was going to benefit from a film highlighting the atrocity he perpetrated? No.”
Wind River stars Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen also touched upon the scandal currently rocking Hollywood, with the actor admitting his feelings on Weinstein are “way too intense” to discuss. He also praised the courageous women speaking out against the producer, who include actresses Rose McGowan and Ashley Judd, and he hopes to encourage his daughter to stand up for what is right and wrong in life.
Olsen added that young women especially need encouraging, as well as boys, “who need to learn how to speak to a girl and how to relate to a girl when they are talking about other boys”.
