Fionnuala Flanagan believes Harvey Weinstein “got what he deserves” and warned that the casting couch is “alive and well” in Hollywood.
The Irish acting legend worked with former Miramax boss Weinstein on two movies and said she was glad he’d finally been brought to justice.
Weinstein, first jailed in 2020, was last week sentenced to 16 more years for the rape and sexual assault of another victim known as Jane Doe 1.
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Dublin icon Fionnuala told Irish Sunday Mirror: “I did two pictures for him [Transamerica, The Others], but his film making days are over.
“It is about time that people like Harvey got his comeuppance.
“He’s just been handed out a lengthy prison sentence in LA. He’s already serving a lengthy prison sentence [handed down] in New York.
“He got his comeuppance because of the crimes he committed.”
Fionnuala, currently starring in RTE drama Smother, added: “I mean the casting couch continues, I’m sure
it does.
“At 81 years of age I doubt very much if anyone is going to inveigle me or try to inveigle me onto a casting couch.”
The IFTA lifetime achievement award-winner said Hollywood is only catching up on giving female directors a shot.
She revealed: “It was well known... for a great number of years women didn’t get to direct pictures.
“I worked with Cali Kouri, who wrote Thelma and Louise, one of the best female pictures with two women as the leads.
“Kelly wrote that and they wouldn’t let her direct it, Ridley Scott directed it.
“Cali had to wait many years until she got to direct, Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood which I was in.
“It has taken years for women to be taken seriously as directors and to get work here in LA.”
Fionnuala’s impressive back catalogue includes Blood Brothers, Waking Ned, The Guard and Star Trek to name a few.
She stars in the upcoming prequel to the Hunger Games as young Coriolanus Snow’s strict grandmother.
The Rich Man Poor Man Emmy award-winner has an impressive career spanning almost 50 years.
She heaped praise on Murder She Wrote producer and actress Angela Lansbury who died last October, aged 96.
Recalling working with the trailblazer on the hit series, she said Angela was in a league of her own.
She said: “Oh, she was terrific, she was a fabulous producer. At six o’clock the car was at the door of the studio and ready or not the day was done. You never worked after six, she was wonderful in that way.”
Fionnuala revealed Angela never bothered with learning lines, as the scripts were all similar, relying on cue cards instead.
She continued: “She could look at you in a scene and then look away to the cue card, just at the right moment, and say, ‘Did you happen to notice that there was a body as you were coming down the stairs?’
“She just had it down pat. I remember one in Ireland we shot, A Killing in Cork.
“The two of us were walking and the guys with the cue cards were in the bushes, on the side of the path.
“The steadicam operator was in front of us walking backwards, that was a bit of a trip.”
Fionnula met husband Garret O’Connor while on tour with the play Lovers and they wed in 1972. Psychiatrist Garret died at the couple’s Co Wicklow home in 2015. She still resides in their Hollywood Hills mansion.
She said: “Of course I still miss him, he was my life partner and friend, my lover and I miss him but you just have to move on in life.
“I’m grateful for the time we had together, you just move on.
“My husband believed what I did was much more important than what he did... and I said all the ways he helped people was far more
important.
“I get lovely roles and that’s part of it and I get to work with some terrific directors, but it’s the next best thing to selling snake oil.
“I think there are other things to do that are much more worthy and help people.”
The couple were known for throwing parties in their Beverly Hills pad, but Fionnuala conceded she often could not remember being there.
She revealed: “They were fun parties. People would say to me, ‘I was at a marvellous party at your house’ and describe who else was there.
“I would say, ‘Was I there? Did I have a good time?’ They were those types of parties.
“Life was different in what was called the sixties, which stretched into the seventies.
“I can’t tell you anymore about the guests, people come because they know their anonymity will be protected.
“Then there were some that were more serious. We held a party for Gerry Adams one time.
“There were British newspaper people parked outside the gate being obnoxious. Times were different back then.”
Fionnuala won an Emmy for playing housekeeper Clothilde in the 1976 adaptation of Jeffrey Archer’s best selling novel Rich Man Poor Man.
Her character had an affair with Nick Nolte’s character, but she said it was “such a long time ago I can barely remember it”.
She added: “He [Nolte] was very dashing and handsome, that role made his career.
“He went on to do wonderful things after that, it certainly helped mine.
“One of the things about actors is we meet each other and work together and have a wonderful time and then you don’t see each other for years.
“If you’re lucky you meet up again in some other picture or play but very few people are close and keep friendly in the acting game.
“I have good close friends who have nothing whatsoever to do with acting.”
Her turn as Doctor Juliana Tainer in Star Trek: The Next Generation also helped her career in the US.
She recalled: “I worked closely wth Brent Spinter [the Android, Data], you know the guy with the gold eyes.
“He is a wonderful actor, he plays himself, his father, he plays his evil twin and we had lots of fun.
“In the end of one episode I get beamed up back to my ship for future adventures in outer space.
“Like the way you do, you know.”
Despite her impressive CV, Fionnuala admitted: “Imposter syndrome can take hold on occasion.
“As time goes by they’re all difficult moments when you think of them together.
“I always think any moment now the acting police are going to tap me on the shoulder and say, ‘Excuse me, you don’t belong here and you have to come with us’.”
Despite longevity in the business, Fionnuala has resisted the pressure to get work done on her face.
“I’m not against having work done, but it’s terrifying and expensive and it doesn’t guarantee that it will work.
“You’re much better to see what life brings and anyway I’m never going to be cast as a cheerleader.”
The eldest of five, the Hollywood actress came from humble beginnings, raised in a corporation house in Whitehall, North Dublin.
She reminisced: “I was born in 1941, I was a war baby. Ireland during what I call the grey 50s was awful.
“Nobody had any money except about six people and they had it all.
“It was a little island cut off on the outer edges of Europe, to get anywhere you had to go to England.
“The Catholic Church had a grip on the place that was appalling.
“A lot of that has changed now that we’re members of the European Union. I remember being a kid living on the northside of Dublin.
“My father would take us out to the airport just to watch planes coming in and going out.
“Can you imagine asking a kid nowadays to go to the airport and watch planes coming in.”
Aware of the housing crisis in Dublin, she said she feels blessed.
She added: “Well now most people live two pay cheques away from being without a roof over their head.
“I consider myself very fortunate.”
Fionnuala still feels the pull of home jaunting between Ireland and Hollywood.
She said: “Well that’s the well and where I go to drink from [Ireland], it’s where I come from and that’s who
I am.
“There are roles I can serve better than other people because I come from Ireland and the role is from there.
“That’s what makes me.”
The veteran actor plays Caro Noonan, mother of lead character Val Ahern (Dervla Kirwan) in Smother.
She said: “I loved the role, it’s great to play a trollop you know, heavily disguised as a loving mother.
“I had so much fun, we shot it in Lahinch in Co Clare.
“If you can survive the months of February and March in Lahinch, you can survive anything.”
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