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Taylor Sheridan may harbor the most potential in the industry, but the genius scriptwriter’s had an especially rocky start. After ducking out of the acting business for being killed off in (what he likes to call) a “f*ck you car crash,” the writer-director soon turned his career into an Oscar-worthy affair.
His filmography no longer features unimpressive guest spots in episodes ofVeronica Mars,Walker, Texas Ranger, andSons of Anarchy. Taylor Sheridan was the new godfather of modern neo-Westerns and the Oscar-nominated writer of instant classics likeSicario,Hell or High Water, andWind River.
However, while Sheridan was still sailing on a wave of newfound fame, Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconduct allegations threatened to cut his Hollywood dreams and ambitions short.
Taylor Sheridan Takes Charge in Turbulent Times
In the aftermath ofHarvey Weinstein’s 2017 sexual misconduct lawsuit, which escalated quickly from harassment and coercion to r*pe and sexual assault,Taylor Sheridangrappled with the fact that Weinstein had the power to undo his life’s work and that his latest film could become collateral damage amid all the spiraling rumors and allegations.
Even before Sheridan could sample a taste of creative liberty, he was being boxed into a corner by the world that was unraveling rapidly around him. His fear was not unsubstantiated, however.Wind River, Sheridan’s 2017 film featuringElizabeth OlsenandJeremy Renner, about a Native Indian woman who was the victim of sexual assault and murder at the hands of three white men on the reservation, was being distributed by The Weinstein Company.
Even America’s Sweetheart Sandra Bullock Was Helpless Against Harvey Weinstein at the Peak of His Power: ‘I was afraid of him’
Sheridan, getting increasingly anxious about the fate of his movie, decided to take quick action. Two months later in December, he revealed toVanity Fair:
Each day a subsequent story broke, and it got progressively worse, and things went from coercion and harassment to assault. At that point, feeling sick, it became a revelation that I can’t have a film about violence against women silenced by the perpetrator of that very act. I called the financier, I called the producer, I called Jeremy[Renner], and Lizzie [Olsen], and I said, ‘This is what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna take it back.’
By then,Wind Riverwas already performing exceptionally well at the box office. Released in August, the film had earned 4 times its production budget and boasted a rating of 87% onRotten Tomatoes. But all the appreciation in the world wasn’t enough to rid Sheridan of the disdain he felt toward one of his films being owned by a now-convicted sexual predator.
Taylor Sheridan on the Harvey Weinstein Fallout
When all was said and done, Taylor Sheridan could proudly take credit for taking control during turbulent times and saving his own film from divine retribution. After all, a film of such grave importance being credited to The Weinstein Company for life did not sit well with its writer slash director.
According to Sheridan:“There’s a necessary purging that’s happening. There’s a certain justice in the fact that this is the last thing [Harvey Weinstein] did, and the thing I took from him.”
The last thing that Taylor Sheridan needed was his movie to be associated with the disgraced media mogul and as expected, that is what he set out to do. With enough conviction running through his veins, the writer-director called David Glasser, the C.O.O. and President of Weinstein Co.
Matt Damon: ‘I would have stopped it’ on Harvey Weinstein Scandal That He Claims No One in Hollywood Knew About for Years
On October 9, a day afterThe New York Timesbroke the news about Harvey Weinstein, Sheridan planned to extricate his film from the company’s control.
I said, “It’s unfair to the people this movie’s about that it be under this umbrella … I need the film back. I need the profits to go to a charity of my choosing.” [Glasser] seemed as gut-punched as anybody.
After The Weinstein Company released the movie from their proprietorship, the profits as Sheridan promised were forwarded to the Tunica-Biloxi tribe who played a big part in funding the film. Future proceeds were forwarded to the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center to aid in preventing crimes against Native American women.
Wind Riveris available to buy/rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.
Diya Majumdar
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2408
Diya Majumdar is a Senior Content Writer at FandomWire with over 2000 published articles on the website. Since 2022, she has been working as an entertainment journalist with a special focus on films and pop culture.Among the countless genres and themes of Hollywood, the ones that particularly favor Diya’s tastes include Game of Thrones, DC, and well-aged thrillers and classics.
