‘Harvey and I were going to be alone on the plane’: Pia Miranda’s brush with Weinstein
More experienced colleagues simply must alert young women to danger, says the actor, whose own interventions helped protect a young Pia Miranda from the film producer’s advances.
Dark-eyed and winsome, Australian actor Pia Miranda had no idea how vulnerable she was when at 27, and being feted in Rome for her breakout role in the hit film Looking for Alibrandi, she was invited to accompany movie mogul Harvey Weinstein to London, solo, on his private plane.
But Greta Scacchi did.
In a new memoir, Miranda, 50, writes that her Alibrandi co-star “flew into a panic … and demanded I cancel”, telling her that “something bad will happen to you on that plane.”
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It was only after dozens of women came forward in 2017 with allegations of rape and sexual assault against Weinstein – claims that led to the #MeToo movement – that Miranda realised she owed Scacchi a debt of gratitude.
“Harvey Weinstein wasn’t a fan of my work, I was just a disposable young woman who was easy prey,” says the award-winning former Neighbours star writes in Finding My Bella Vita, out this month.
“Sure, maybe nothing bad would have happened to me on that plane alone with him, but after so many brave women spoke up about him over the years, I’m grateful I never got to find out.”
Weinstein, 70, will likely spend the rest of his life in prison after a Los Angeles judge earlier this year sentenced him to an additional 16 years jail time on three charges of rape and sexual assault. The former producer was already serving a 23-year prison sentence for rape and sexual assault in New York.
Scacchi, who had to contend with a barrage of casual sexism at the height of her fame in the 1980s and 90s, remembers the Rome incident well.
Contacted at her London home, the 63-year-old star of White Mischief and Presumed Innocent told The Weekend Australian that Miranda’s telling of the story was “particularly touching” as it illustrated the “timeless custom” of women helping women.
“There is something worth discussing in the #MeToo whirlwind which is much more down-to-earth and universal than the celebrity media whisks up,” Scacchi said.
“It is to do with the role more experienced female (or male) colleagues and friends have in alerting vulnerable women to danger. I believe that ‘sisterhood’ has always been active and a natural part of life.”
She questioned, however, whether those customs weren’t being eroded. “Perhaps in today’s society we have forgotten to act on certain instincts or we don’t have such respect for experience?” she said.
Scacchi has a daughter with Law & Order star Vincent D’Onofrio, who is also in the industry. Leila George is 31 and co-stars alongside her mother in the upcoming West Australian family drama, He Ain’t Heavy.
In her memoir, Miranda describes Scacchi as “forever a hero of mine”.
“I’m sorry for everyone who didn’t have a Greta and I hope to always be a Greta to other young women until I no longer need to be,” she writes.
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I first went to Italy when I was five years old, and I still remember it clearly, because even at that young age I knew it was magical. We took Nonna back to the Aeolian islands to see family and we were constantly surrounded by great food and happy people. It felt like a second home to me. I couldn’t understand what anyone was saying but it didn’t matter because I could feel the love.
It was alarmingly bright and steaming hot but we were surrounded by the blue Tyrrhenian Sea that would generate a soft breeze to cool our skin. It was a place frozen in time with old-world interiors that were simple but inviting and basic amenities, like a hole in the ground for a toilet.
Even then, in my tiny kid brain, I felt like I was living in a movie. I remember Nonna being so happy and animated while we were in Italy, and I clung on to her constantly during that trip because the essence of her was everywhere and the joy that surrounded us was intoxicating.
My whole life, all I ever wanted was to go back there and feel that connection to the sand and volcanoes. I have always been drawn to the sun and the sea, and I think there is something about that time and those people that I needed to revisit to accept who I am, to understand something that is so potent in my blood, but also remains a mystery.
So the most beautiful and unexpected surprise about my role in the hit coming-of-age film Looking for Alibrandi (2000) was that we were invited to go to Taormina in Sicily for a film festival. The organisers of the Taormina Film Festival were flying the director Kate Woods, the scriptwriter and original author of the book by the same name, Melina Marchetta, and I over from Australia, all-expenses paid, and putting us up in a beautiful hotel.
We were meeting my co-star Greta Scacchi and her family there so we were going to have a mini reunion in paradise. I literally could not believe my luck, it was so unbelievably exciting. We flew business class, which I had never done before, so I was totally overstimulated by the free food, movies and champagne.
It was the most amazing moment when I stepped off the plane at Rome airport. I looked around at all the people and I saw myself everywhere – young women who looked like me were literally everywhere in the airport crowd. I hadn’t expected to be so emotional, but I was. I guess it’s how most people must feel when they return to a country where their heritage reflects their physicality.
The very first thing I did when my feet hit the ground was order an espresso from the airport cafe. I just stood there alone, staring at everyone, trying not to cry with happiness. I was a tiny bit hungover from the free business class champagne, so that probably added to my delicate emotional state, but it was still a great experience. Kate, Melina and I then continued on to Taormina, which meant taking another flight to Catania.
We found our way to Taormina, which was one of the most beautiful places I had ever visited. To top it all off, the whole town was abuzz and filled with activity as the film festival guests had taken over.
Our social calendar was immediately full, with dinners and parties, but we also had plenty of time to wander the streets to take in the picturesque town and meet the lovely locals.
This trip was my first, and definitely most exotic experience of being chaperoned by a film festival and I loved being treated to expensive dinners and exclusive black-tie parties – I’m glad I lapped up every minute. I guess some actors do this stuff all the time, but I never really felt like it was my destiny to be a Hollywood movie star, so I knew I should take in every moment.
Greta Scacchi met us at the festival and as always she was such fun to be around. We would sit together in her room sipping champagne or drinking espresso as she entertained me with colourful stories about Hollywood, most of which were cautionary tales wrapped up in hilariously comedic anecdotes. Greta is an incredibly funny and witty human and she is also a great supporter of women. I hung out with her children, who I fell instantly in love with, and I felt part of her family for a short while.
Just like on the film set, I noticed the world seemed to slow down when Greta was around. People in Italy stared adoringly at her or opened restaurants that were closed to make us feasts, letting us luxuriate for as long as we wanted. Her beauty captivated everyone, but it was her presence that was really intoxicating – people gravitate towards her. I loved watching this Italian movie star stroll the streets of Italy oblivious to the effect she had on the world.
Greta was so kind when we were at parties and she graciously introduced me to incredible Italian filmmakers including Michelangelo Antonioni and Hollywood types who I would never have dreamt of meeting. Just as our trip was ending, Greta had organised for us to all go to another film festival in Rome. I was excited because I wasn’t ready for my trip to be over.
When I was in Taormina I met a lovely guy. For legal reasons that will become clear, we’re going to need to call him Z.
Z had seen Looking for Alibrandi and loved it, so we swapped details. Z worked in the industry and he wanted to catch up while I was in Rome, show me around, introduce me to some film people and take me to his favourite restaurants. Sign me right up. When you are doing the festival circuit it’s not unusual to be hosted by people from film companies at dinners, drinks or events, and you can bond quickly, because you are all connected by a passion for film and the thrill of being a part of the industry you love. I was eager to hang out.
On the first night Z and I went out, he popped me on the back of a Vespa, which made me feel like I was Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday. I’m not overly romantic, in fact I really, really hate romantic comedies, or romance in general, but something about an Italian man driving me around Rome on his Vespa touched a dormant whimsical part of my heart.
He took me out for beautiful dinners and we hung out with his friends, and a couple of gorgeous female Italian models who were very sweet and tried to teach me the language over pasta and wine.
Z knew lots of people and one night we met up with film mogul Harvey Weinstein, who was also in Italy for the festivals. This was exciting for me because my love for The Talented Mr Ripley – a film that his company Miramax was instrumental in – runs deep.
Harvey seemed very friendly. He was quite sexually rambunctious in his conversation topics, but I was more bemused by than concerned by it, because he was just very jovial and friendly.
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“Go home and have sex with Z, he loves you!” he exclaimed one night.
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“He wants to marry you and move you to Rome. You have to go and sleep with him tonight! You Australian girls are crazy in bed, it’s all whips and chains. Go have fun.” I told him whips and chains were not my thing but he didn’t seem convinced.
OK, it did start to get a bit uncomfortable at that point, but he seemed harmless because I felt like he was teasing me rather than being serious. Plus, he didn’t drink – I was used to drunk and sleazy bosses from working in pubs and nightclubs but Harvey seemed quite switched on.
Z did seem to like me and we’d shared a few moments back at his flat, but he just wasn’t my type even though he had a certain charm. In the end, I decided I didn’t want to sleep with him... so I didn’t. He was nice about it and let it go.
Greta wasn’t a fan of my trips out with Z. She told me a few cautionary stories about Hollywood but this was a friend of the head of a massive film company and Z was really nice, so I assumed she was being overprotective.
One night when I was making my way out to dinner with him, Greta demanded to see his business card. Waving it in my face, she told me not to trust these men and that she wanted me to have dinner with her and the kids instead. I was touched by how sweet she was to worry about me, but I was having fun and Z didn’t give me bad vibes, so off I went. Greta didn’t seem convinced, but I was confident I was nailing this “when in Rome” life.
Eventually, Z started to get the hint that he had been put in the “friend zone”, and although I still saw him socially, his interest waned. I was conscious of remaining friendly and charming around him and Harvey, though, because that’s how actors often are to people in power, it’s how we hustle for jobs. Auditions, dinner meetings, film festival parties are all set up to give actors the opportunity to dazzle strangers into giving us work, so in those situations I would put my sparkliest persona on to try and tap-dance my way to victory.
Just before I was due to leave for London, Z said it would be fun for me to fly there on a private jet with Harvey. I had never been on a private jet before and I was pretty sure I’d seen a picture in a magazine of Penelope Cruz on this exact jet, but a few things made me hesitate. My dislike of small planes, for one, but also the worry that it could all fall over at the last minute, leaving me stranded.
I was already booked on a nice safe British Airways flight to London. My hesitation became even more pronounced when my hotel room phone began ringing incessantly – Harvey and Z were calling me non-stop, trying to convince me to go.
Then Z let slip that Harvey and I were going to be alone on the plane, which just seemed stressful. Was that going to be like a three-hour audition? Geez, I didn’t know if I had the stamina to be charming for three hours. I figured that must be a pretty standard event in their world and, even though I was worried about keeping up a decent conversation for that long, I thought I shouldn’t be rude. I decided I’d let Greta know I was changing my travel plans.
I skipped down to Greta’s room, excited for us to spend our last day in Rome together. But when I told her I might fly to London with Harvey Weinstein on his private jet, she wasn’t having any of it. She flew into a panic, and told me that I shouldn’t do it. I told her it was arranged and that the Miramax car was coming for me that evening.
Greta demanded that I cancel. “Something bad will happen to you on that plane,” she warned me. She walked with me back to my room where my phone was still ringing, and she took it off the hook, watched me finish packing and got the film festival to book me a car so I could make my original flight.
She actually advised me to catch a train, because she said the drivers were terrifying in Italy, but I was tired and kind of annoyed about her disconnecting my phone, so I insisted I would take the car. She was right again. The driver ended up taking me to the back of Rome airport and asking me in Italian to give him a blow job; it took a bit of back and forth between us until I understood what he wanted. He ended up being very apologetic and blamed the language barrier – he thought I had offered him one. Anyway, when I emphatically denied this, he sheepishly drove me to departures.
I finally made it safely to Heathrow on a big safe commercial jet. I felt a bit guilty that I had been rude to Harvey Weinstein but I reassured myself that he seemed to really like my work and we had a decent rapport, so I was sure I’d get the opportunity to audition for one of his films soon. As it turns out, I never did, but I’m fine with it because nothing terrible happened to me either. Sure, maybe nothing bad would have happened to me on that plane alone with him, but after so many brave women spoke up about him over the years, I’m grateful I never got to find out.
My encounter with Z always seemed fairly tame in my head, although after the stories surrounding Harvey Weinstein started to come out, my time with him seemed a little heavier. Then one day I was lying in bed when my husband walked in with an article on his phone. He said, “Look at this.” I saw the headline and my heart dropped a little. I read the article and it dropped further. It detailed how Z allegedly hunted for young actresses at Italian film festivals to deliver to Harvey Weinstein as playthings. There were actresses with stories similar to mine: the wining and dining, the incessant phone calls... all of it. The difference for me was that I had someone looking out for me, so I had escaped unscathed.
There was another article that was even more disturbing.
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I realised that I was almost delivered like a meal on a platter and served on a private jet to Harvey Weinstein.
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I know that people like to judge young women who get themselves into compromising positions because “they should have known better”, but the truth is no, we shouldn’t. We shouldn’t need to be suspicious and on guard when we are young, vulnerable and ambitious. Every meeting is thrilling, every encounter with people who make brilliant films is a highlight because when you passionately love movies you want to be surrounded by people who feel the same.
Even though I knew I was no Gwyneth Paltrow, I would constantly wonder what it would be like to have a small part in a Miramax film. It didn’t seem unrealistic during that stint in Rome that film executives would be talking to me about future work, because I was at the beginning of a promising career and I was filled with hope. But I was duped.
Harvey Weinstein wasn’t a fan of my work, I was just a disposable young woman who was easy prey.
When you are an actress you are surrounded by people who have power over your career. Some of those people are wonderful and some are not. I was lucky not to learn that lesson the hard way back then.
For years I recalled what I thought was an innocent holiday adventure with a nice guy who drove me around on the back of a Vespa when the reality was something far more sinister. I’m sorry for all the women who suffered at Weinstein’s hands or went through terrible things at the hands of other men who haven’t faced their reckoning yet.
To all those women I say, you deserve better and our daughters deserve better. I’m sorry for everyone who didn’t have a Greta and I hope to always be a Greta to other young women until I no longer need to be. Greta Scacchi is the hero of this story and forever a hero of mine.
Pia Miranda’s memoir Finding My Bella Vita (Hachette, $34.99) is out September 27
