Listen to the full excerpt here.
New York — In an interview with Center for American Progress’ podcast “Thinking CAP,” film producer Scott Budnick describes a culture of complicity and fear in the movie business, as allegations of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconduct pile up. Budnick tells “Thinking CAP” co-hosts Igor Volsky and Michele Jawando, “There is far worse than Harvey Weinstein, and there’s many others that can compete with Harvey Weinstein. This is a pervasive problem across the entire industry. And everyone remains silent because they want to be promoted. I mean this is fantasy land; this is la la land; they want to make it into the film business, so they stay quiet.”
The interview took place at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at a conference on criminal justice reform. In that context, Budnick added that he believes Weinstein can find redemption for his alleged behavior. “If we’re sitting here at this conference today talking about second chances for people that committed violent crimes against people, to take this guy down and not believe that at some point he could redeem himself I think is a bit of an unfair conversation. I’ve never seen anyone say that in the media. So I wish Harvey luck; I think the power got to his head, and the lack of accountability got to his head. And I hope he goes and does the work on himself that he needs to do and comes out a much better person.”
The audio was originally released on Twitter and will be included in tomorrow’s episode of the podcast.
Thinking CAP is a weekly podcast launched in May by CAP. During the past few months, co-hosts Michele Jawando and Igor Volsky have spoken with leading progressive thought leaders, comedians, advocates, and politicians, including Hasan Minhaj of “The Daily Show,” comedian Baratunde Thurston, Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Al Franken (D-MN), and Chris Murphy (D-CT), former U.S. Secretary of Education John King, and former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. New episodes are released every Thursday. The podcast is available on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and CAP’s website.
If you are looking for more information on guest booking, please contact Sally Tucker at [email protected] or 202.481.8103.