British filmmaker, Michael Caton-Jones, has told BuzzFeed that the real reason he was dropped from directing 1998 cult classic B. Monkey was because Harvey Weinstein thought that Sophie Okonedo, his choice for the starring role, wasn’t ‘fuckable.’
Asia Argento, who later got that role, is one of the many women who have recently alleged Weinstein sexually assaulted or harassed them. In fact, Argento said the disgraced Hollywood mogul raped her in 1997.
Caton-Jones said, ‘The basics of the deal was we were going to find an unknown and we were going to cast her as the lead in the film. There was extensive casting. We saw many, many girls, maybe 100 or so. And I ended up — I thought Sophie Okonedo would have been great for the part.’
According to him, however, ‘Harvey kept saying to me, ‘Do you think she is fuckable?”
This post first appeared on TNS.