Guillermo del Toro said working with the Weinstein brothers was one of the "worst experiences" of his life.
The 53-year-old director first worked with the disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and his sibling Bob on the 1997 sci-fi horror movie ‘Mimic’, but now, Guillermo has admitted he had a terrible time working with the two producers because they interfered in all aspects of the project.
He told The I Paper: "It remains one of the worst experiences of my life, when I did ‘Mimic’ for Miramax. It was a horrible, horrible, horrible, experience. I was interfered with in plot, in casting, in the type of action. They second guessed all the time. I never had a single day that was pleasant."
The film – which starred Norman Reedus and Josh Brolin – spawned two direct-to-video sequels in 2001 and 2003 but neither involved the Mexican filmmaker.
Del Toro has previously spoken out about working with the Weinstein brothers and admitted that his experience on ‘Mimic’ – which was his first American movie – almost stopped him making more movies in the US.
He told the BFI London Film Festival in October: "I really hated the experience. My first American experience was almost my last because it was with the Weinsteins and Miramax. I have got to tell you, two horrible things happened in the late nineties, my father was kidnapped and I worked with the Weinsteins. I know which one was worse … the kidnapping made more sense, I knew what they wanted."
Although he hated the experience working on ‘Mimic’, he admitted he learned a lot of experiences from it, which he used while filming his latest movie ‘The Shape of Water’ – which has been nominated for 13 Academy Awards.
He said: "I learned to make my camera more fluid, more a storytelling character; it really helped my develop the language that now I practice on ‘The Shape of Water’. It taught me to edit every day because I was always expecting to be fired… I think adversity is good … that is very Catholic of me."
Last year, Harvey was accused by multiple actresses of sexual harassment and sexual assault and is currently in hiding after undergoing a rehabilitation course.