Add this to the never-ending list of reasons Harvey Weinstein deserves to be in jail. The disgraced Hollywood producer, who is currently serving 23 years for rape and sexual assault, reportedly didn’t pay filmmakers what they were owed. Pause for shock. Nothing? Same. According to Kevin Smith, who made several movies with Weinstein and his Miramax production company, he’s still owed money from his breakout film
Clerks. Yeah, that cheque is probably not coming.In a new interview with
Variety, Smith says that following Weinstein’s purchase of his 1994 debut film
Clerks for $227,000 at the Sundance Film Festival, the writer, director and actor was promised additional money through the backend if the film became profitable. The little black and white film about a day in the life of two disgruntled retail workers, one of whom wasn’t even supposed to be there, did become profitable. Clerks grossed $3.2 million at the box office in North America and made millions more as a cult classic on VHS. The film received a sequel with
Clerks II, an animated series, a comic book and a documentary about the making of the film, but Smith says that it took years for Weinstein to pay the filmmaker the money he was owed, and even then the funds were insufficient.[video_embed id='1891878']RELATED: New film sparks conversation about the #MeToo movement[/video_embed]Speaking to
Variety, Smith noted that Weinstein was ‘notorious’ for not paying his filmmakers, adding that he’s ‘still out money’ from
Clerks. “For seven years, they were like: ‘Nope, the movie is still not in profit.’ And we were like ‘How?’ And then there were things,” says Smith. Those things included the bill for some extravagant rentals that Smith’s film didn’t benefit from.“We all went to Cannes. There were four movies that Miramax took to the Cannes Film Festival in 1994 — “Fresh,” “The Picture Bride,” “Clerks” and “Pulp Fiction.” Miramax didn’t get “Clerks” in. We were in the International Critics Week section, which we actually won. I get flown over by the festival. I was given a free hotel room from the festival,” remembers Smith. “This is a long way of saying Miramax didn’t have to pay for anything. There was a yacht, the Miramax yacht, it was called. That’s where all the stars were. We hung out on it, hung out with Quentin [Tarantino] after he won his Palme d’Or and stuff. But that yacht wasn’t for us. When the festival was over, we got the financial statement. They had taken the entire Cannes bill, everything they spent in Cannes, and just chopped it up into four and “Clerks” was charged as much as “Pulp Fiction.” So we all paid an equal share.”Smith says that he was advised to take legal action against Weinstein and Miramax but felt uncomfortable doing so. “We never audited them for years until after ‘Clerks 2.’ And then we audited them years later and got a bunch of money. If I was a better business person, I would have gone for more money. But it felt like – “Oh, there it is. That’s their process. Movie math.’ And, to be fair, I worked at studios and they have way more paperwork and you can see where every dime is going. But the nature of this business is everybody wants to keep as much money as they possibly can.”Following the release of
Clerks, Smith continued to work with Weinstein and his production company, going on to release
Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Clerks II, Zack and Miri Make A Porno, Jersey Girl and
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. Smith told Variety that the working relationship continued because he was paid upfront. “I was never like, ‘Hey man, where’s those nickels and dimes on the back end?’ And perhaps that’s why they kept making movies with me, even though my movies weren’t box-office profitable. Home video, they were goldmines. That’s really why they kept me around.”Smith’s decision to not pursue legal action against Weinstein was also likely highly influenced by the pair’s relationship. Days after the release of Ronan Farrow’s
Pulitzer Prize-winning expose on Weinstein in the October 2017 issue of
The New Yorker, Smith
filmed an episode of his podcast Hollywood Babble-On. “My entire career is tied up with the man,” said Smith. “It’s been a weird f—ing week. I just wanted to make some f—ing movies, that’s it. That’s why I came, that’s why I made Clerks. And no f—ing movie is worth all this. Like, my entire career, fuck it, take it. It’s wrapped up in something really f–ing horrible.”Recorded in front of a live audience, Smith became emotional when an audience member yelled that Weinstein’s assaults were not Smith’s fault. “I’m not looking for sympathy. I know it’s not my fault, but I didn’t f—ing help. Because I sat out there talking about this man like he was a hero, like he was my friend, like he was my father and shit like that, and he changed my f—ing life. And I showed other people, like, ‘You can dream, and you can make stuff, and this man will put it out.’ I was singing praises of somebody that I didn’t f—ing know. I didn’t know the man that they keep talking about in the press. Clearly he exists, but that man never showed himself to me. It all hurts, and it didn’t happen to me, but it all hurts.”During the taping of the podcast, Smith also announced that he would donate $2,000 per month for the rest of his life to Women In Film, a nonprofit organization that promotes women in film. Smith also said he would donate all future residuals from Weinstein-produced films to the organization.
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