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Bad Santa director: ‘Harvey Weinstein discouraged me from casting Mira Sorvino’

Harvey Weinstein would hang up the phone whenever Bad Santa director Terry Zwigoff mentioned actress Mira Sorvino in casting talks.
Responding to revelations made by director Peter Jackson, that Weinstein and officials at his production company Miramax allegedly called Sorvino and Ashley Judd “a nightmare” and urged the filmmaker not to cast them in Lord of the Rings, Zwigoff claims he experienced something similar.
When trying to cast the 2003 comedy, starring Billy Bob Thornton, Harvey and his brother Bob would hang up the phone whenever he mentioned the Oscar-winning actress, Terry alleges.
“I was interested in casting Mira Sorvino in BAD SANTA, but every time I mentioned her over the phone to the Weinsteins, I’d hear a CLICK,” Zwigoff wrote on Twitter on Saturday (16Dec17). “What type of person just hangs up on you like that?! I guess we all know what type of person now.”
He ended the tweet with an apology to the actress, simply saying: ”I’m really sorry Mira.”
A lawyer for the disgraced movie producer said in a statement to Entertainment Weekly: “Mr. Weinstein denies speaking with Terry regarding casting. That was a Dimension film (Bob Weinstein) and Harvey had nothing to do with it.”
Zwigoff’s comments come after fellow director Jackson apologised to Mira and Ashley Judd, fearing he had been “complicit” in a Weinstein brothers “smear campaign” against the actresses in the 1990s.
Both stars have claimed their careers were ruined by Harvey after they spurned his unwanted sexual advances.
“I am blown away by all the immensely loving support you have all been giving me,” Sorvino wrote on Twitter on Saturday. “These have been a very rough few days, feeling like twenty years of effort were thwarted. But all this goodwill and kindness touches my heart… thank you all.”
Weinstein’s representative previously dismissed Jackson’s smear campaign claims, insisting the filmmaker had been fed false information.

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