Pan’s Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro has described working with Harvey Weinstein as “horrible”.
The Mexican filmmaker hit out at the movie mogul who is facing a number of sexual harassment and abuse allegations from actresses including stars Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Del Toro worked with Weinstein and his brother Bob Weinstein on 1997 sci-fi horror film Mimic and said it nearly put him off Hollywood for good.
“I really hated the experience,” Del Toro said during a talk at the BFI London Film Festival.
“My first American experience was almost my last because it was with the Weinsteins and Miramax. I have got to tell you, two horrible things happened in the late nineties, my father was kidnapped and I worked with the Weinsteins.”
He added: “I know which one was worse… the kidnapping made more sense, I knew what they wanted.”
The director said one positive to come from the experience was he “learned to fight”.
“I lost casting battles, I lost story battles but the one thing Mimic is visually 100% exactly what I wanted.
“The movie is visually gorgeous and it has a couple of sequences I’m very proud of.”
He added: “On one of our first meetings they said the only rule you’ve got to follow is you cannot harm kids or pets. So I had one scene where I killed two kids and one dog… I don’t know if this is much of an achievement but it felt like one.”
Despite issuing a general apology Weinstein has failed to comment on many of the accusations. He issued a vehement denial over three allegations of rape which emerged on Tuesday.
:: The London BFI Film Festival is running until October 15.
