After he disclosed plans to produce a new movie starring Meryl Streep that takes on the National Rifle Assn.’s polical influence, Harvey Weinstein tells CNN’s “Piers Morgan Live” on Friday that he will start choosing movies that “aren’t violent or as violent as they used to be.”
After his announcement that he would make an anti-NRA project on Howard Stern’s radio show earlier this week, gun rights advocates pounced, with Ted Nugent labelling Weinstein a “sub-human punk” and others seeing hypocrisy in his call for stronger gun control and at the same time producing movies like “Django Unchained” and “Pulp Fiction” that are heavy in gun violence.
After Morgan asked Weinstein about when he would stop movies that don’t glamorize guns, he said, “Well, I think they have a point. You have to look in the mirror too. I have to choose films that aren’t violent or aren’t as violent as they used to be.”
He added, “For me personally I can’t continue to that. The change starts here….For me I can’t make one movie, and say ‘This is what I want for my kids and just go out and be a hypocrite. I can’t continue to do that. The change starts here.”
Weinstein made a distinction between a movie like “Lone Survivor,” about the U.S. special forces, which he said he would make, and “some crazy action movie, just for the sake of blowing up people.”
But Weinstein said that he’s willing to take the heat because the issue can’t be ignored. “As much as I want to ignore it, as much as I want to go on with my regular life, I can’t do it this time,” he said.
Harvey Weinstein: "All the heat should come my way"
Weinstein is careful to clarify that the anti-gun sentiment is his own, and does not reflect any position of his cast:
"Meryl Streep's an actress. I want to make that clear right away. She's working as someone that's playing a part," he iterates to Morgan. "It's not her belief and all the heat should come my way, and I'm kind of used to the heat anyhow."
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