Sarah Polley

Sarah Polley, whose mother was a casting director, was the most famous child star in Canada during the 1990s. In her late teens, she went to Hollywood to appear in a few movies. Could Harvey Weinstein be the reason she quickly returned to Canada? She calls Weinstein “just one festering pustule in a diseased industry” in a New York Times Sunday Review opinion piece dated Oct. 14, 2017. She says she was summoned to his office in 1998 while making the Miramax movie Guinevere. On the way, her publicist told her, “I’m not leaving your side.”  Inside, Weinstein told Polley about another actress with whom he’d had a “close relationship,” who had gone on to play starring roles and win awards. He told Polley if they had that kind of relationship, she could expect a similar career, saying, “That’s how it works.” She turned him down, saying she “wasn’t very ambitious or interested in acting.” Polley has gone on to become an award-winning Canadian film director/screenwriter, and even earned a 2008 Oscar nomination for her screenplay for the movie Away From Her.