During a recent SAG Foundation Conversations at Home interview, the Oscar winner talks about the main differences between what happens to her Jeanne Crandall character and herself in real life.

• May 6, 2020

AceShowbiz - Mira Sorvino feared fans and critics would dwell on her relationship with Harvey Weinstein when they saw her playing a studio head's mistress in new period TV series "Hollywood".

The Oscar winner was at the forefront of allegations surrounding Weinstein's predatory behavior and sexual misconduct, which eventually landed the disgraced movie mogul behind bars, and she was worried many people would link her latest character to the scandal.

But she hopes that critics can appreciate her character, Jeanne Crandall, is a woman from a certain era and her relationship with Rob Reiner's Ace Amberg was consensual, unlike the one she had with Harvey, whom she maintains blacklisted her in Hollywood when she turned down his advances.

"There were these studio girls who were on 18-month contracts with all the studios and essentially passed along from executive to executive," she says in a recent SAG Foundation Conversations at Home interview. "They were never really intended to become break-outs. They were there as the kind of in-house... fresh girls. They would be dated, used up and their contracts would be dropped and onto the next. It was really a cruel and unfair system."

"In this story when we get to the part where she's (my character) having an affair with the studio head, Ace Amberg, and that she has been for 10 years; we see her as a creature of her time. When I saw the scene I thought, 'Oh no, are people going to think that this character was me,' because of my role with the whole #MeToo movement and the fact that I steadfastly rejected Harvey Weinstein's advances and then was punished for it by being blacklisted."

"Where I refused to sleep with the studio head, she (Crandall) willingly is in a consensual relationship with the studio head. Although her relationship, I do believe, contained affection and I don't think the studio head was predatory in a frightening way, I would say that Rob Reiner's character is exercising his right as the king to have any of the court ladies at his behest."

When it came to shooting one hot and heavy scene with Rob, Mira was offered an intimacy co-ordinator to make sure every movement was choreographed and there was as little discomfort as possible.

"I was kind of terrified of the scene where he shows her this affection and when we got to the scene and actually shot it, Rob was also I think quite nervous about it," she explains. "They took the curse off of it with an intimacy co-ordinator and I've never worked with one in my entire career. I have done countless sex scenes; I can't even count how many I've done and there was never someone choreographing them or making us feel comfortable."

"Having this gentleman on set was really helpful and took away the awkward fears and violating in any sense. It was totally above board and even offered us padding even when we were fully clothed so nothing was pressed against anything when we pressed against each other... We ended up having so much fun it was like a Monty Python sex scene."

"So ultimately, when I thought is it gonna be lurid or will people say that's Mira with Harvey when absolutely it's the opposite, none of that came to pass and I felt really good about it in the end."