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“It was just dumb. ‘Let’s get her on a pool table and have her [dance],'” Stiles recalled of the iconic scene.
Julia Stiles is opening up about her experience with Harvey Weinstein.
While appearing on the Films to Be Buried With podcast, the Down to You star recalled feeling “slimy” filming the 2000 romcom once Weinstein started giving producer input.
When host Brett Goldstein asked Stiles what the worst movie she’s seen is, she responded, “One of my own movies, actually, that I think was executed very poorly.”
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“It was a time when teen rom-coms were really popular, and the director (Kris Isacsson) wrote the script. He was a first-time director and he was a very, very intelligent, capable guy. The script was very good,” the star explained. “And then Harvey Weinstein got his hands on it.”
During filming of Down To You — which also starred Freddie Prinze Jr., Shawn Hatosy, Selma Blair and Henry Winkler — Stiles recalled a dance scene she had to do that made her feel uncomfortable.
“When we did reshoots, I’m told that [Harvey] decided that because of the success of Save the Last Dance and 10 Things I Hate About You, with me dancing on the pool table, that he needed to have me dance in the film,” Stiles continued.
“It was just dumb. ‘Let’s get her on a pool table and have her [dance].’ It wasn’t even imaginative. I felt so slimy doing it the whole time. I don’t know if it made it into the film but It was annoying. Because I was like, ‘Well, this is so cheap, and it’s not adding to the story.'”
She called Weinstein’s decision a “dumb” attempt to “capitalize on this trend.”
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The film follows college students Al (Prinze Jr.) and Imogen (Stiles) as they navigate the highs and lows of first love, only to face the challenges of growing up and drifting apart. Through heartbreak — and, in true rom-com style — self-discovery, they must decide if their love is strong enough to overcome the realities of adulthood.
Weinstein, the disgraced former film producer, is scheduled for a retrial in New York on April 15, 2025, after his 2020 rape conviction was overturned due to procedural errors.
Despite his declining health, including chronic myeloid leukemia, Weinstein continues to serve a 16-year sentence for a separate rape conviction in California.
