Former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein is sentenced to 23 years in prison on sex crime convictions. Video / AP
Gwyneth Paltrow has opened up about the reasons she made the difficult decision to quit her acting career in Hollywood.
The Oscar-winning actress, who has since founded her lifestyle brand Goop, said she partly quit because of Harvey Weinstein.
Speaking on SiriusXM's Quarantined with Bruce, Paltrow said the decision "wasn't conscious at the time".
"I started to feel, and, you know, frankly, I think part of my, part of the shine of acting wore off, you know, being in such intense public scrutiny, being a kid who's like living every break-up on every headline," she said.
"So if you compound those things with the fact that like, you know, to be totally candid, I had a really rough boss for most of my movie career at Miramax."
The boss she refers to is 68-year-old convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein.
Gwyneth Paltrow with Harvey Weinstein at the 50th Anniversary Gala of The National Film Theatre in London in 2002. Photo / Getty Images
He founded Miramax with his bother in 1979 and ran the company until 2005, when he left to start The Weinstein Company.
It was under the Miramax banner that Paltrow starred in Emma and went on to win the Oscar for Best Actress in 1999, for her role in Shakespeare in Love.
The actress is credited with playing a big part in helping the New York Times bring down the disgraced film producer, who has been sentenced to 23 years in jail.
"I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified," she told the Times in 2017.
Paltrow has previously opened up about one of the incidents with Weinstein. She described her working relationship as "abusive".
"The one time that Harvey propositioned me was really almost the least of it in terms of how onerous that relationship was, and it was very quid pro quo and punitive," she said in an interview.
Gwyneth Paltrow outside Valentino during Paris Fashion Week's Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2019/20 show last year in July. Photo / Getty Images
"And I always felt like I was on thin ice, and he could be truly horrible and mean and then be incredibly generous. It was kind of like a classic abusive relationship."
She recalled how Weinstein summoned her to his hotel room for a meeting once and suggested they head to the bedroom for a massage.
"I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified," Paltrow said. She then told her then-boyfriend Brad Pitt what had happened, and he warned Weinstein never to touch Paltrow again.
Weinstein reportedly lied about having slept with Paltrow to other women, in an attempt to convince them to have sex with him.
"He's not the first person to lie about sleeping with someone," she said. "But he used the lie as an assault weapon."
In March 2019, the Goop creator clarified that she has not fully retired from acting.
"What I say is Goop is my full-time passion, and being the founder and CEO of Goop is what I do all day every day, and occasionally when something is the right thing and it works out around my children and my Goop life, I'm able to participate," she said.
"I think I'm just not focused on full-time acting right now."
