Lisa Rose is a woman who’s seen a lot, some of it while working at Miramax, as an assistant to Harvey Weinstein in London. Now she’s sharing her hard-won insight and wisdom in her one-woman play Too Small to *Tell, about a young woman navigating ambition, abuse and trauma. Then there’s the question she still grapples with – was she complicit during her time as an assistant at a global film company?
Thirty years on, in the wake of #MeToo and media headlines about men such as Russell Brand and Mohamed al Fayed, her play reflects on why this keeps happening to women. What stops women coming forward? When is a story big enough to tell?
You were an actress in the ’90s – do you think actresses still face the same issues today, post-Weinstein and #MeToo?
It’s less overt nowadays. It is better, but it has not gone away completely. I think young women are better at handling it.
I did a workshop in a drama school and many of the female students were wary. Given the way the industry is and always has been, the power at the top can intimidate actresses. But now those powerful people do have to be more accountable and careful. The ‘profession’ of acting and how women are viewed within it has historically been objectified – actresses are seen as ‘loose’.
Harvey Weinstein is standing trial again and women’s rights in the US are being threatened – do you think that the positive changes women in the entertainment industry have achieved are in danger?
There are intimacy coaches on sets now – but not all sets. There are more female directors. I cant really talk about what it’s like in America, but there seems to have been a backlash there. However, it can be a concern since we tend to mirror the industry here.
It isn’t just the film industry. People spoke to me from the banking world, the teaching world, and the property world. They all had stories. Like the friend who told me that her boss always pinged her bra at the photocopy machine, and a teacher friend who had to explicitly explain what another teacher had done to the male headmaster.
When did you realise that the glamorous world you’d entered was a dangerous place for women?
My play ‘Too Small to *Tell’ explains it! (Lisa’s play runs from Tue 15-Sun 20 April in London and at the Brighton Fringe in May – see below for tickets). The play is set in the ’90s and things were worse then. I worked as an actress and as an assistant at Miramax. I also had an experience at 18 in a film, but suppressed it until now.
What compelled you to write the play at this point in your life?
I wanted to respond about the news, and him [Harvey Weinstein] on TV. And I wanted to tell it from the perspective of an ordinary woman. The play is also about supporting each other and not judging. It’s about speaking out whether we are heard or not. And it’s about respecting each other’s stories.
Your play is about ‘survival, sisterhood and speaking up’…
Yes, and wanting to stand up for others. And the guilt I felt for getting a friend a job there and she was assaulted.
What advice would you give to women working in the industry now?
1. Join a union
2. Look out for yourself
3. Stand up for yourself
4. Stand up for each other
To hear more about what it was like to work for Harvey Weinstein, watch Lisa’s 2017 BBC interview. To follow the show on Instagram, click here
Tickets for Too Small to *Tell
The London run has now finished but you can see Lisa’s play at the Brighton Fringe on Thu 15, Fri 16, Sat 17 May at 8.15pm and Tue 20 May at 6pm.
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Content warning: Descriptions of bullying, sexual harassment and sexual violence.
Age guidance: 16+
I’ve only just heard of this and unfortunately now can’t rearrange life to go.
If it’s on anywhere again, please let me know
Congratulations for tackling such an important subject.