Seinfeld's Patrick Warburton Was Cheated By Harvey Weinstein Long Before Scandals Took Down His Care
Highlights
- Patrick Warburton reveals how Harvey Weinstein cheated him professionally, causing a sour experience working on the film Hoodwinked.
- Weinstein used his power to ruin careers of actors who rejected him, as confirmed by Rosanna Arquette and Peter Jackson.
- Warburton acknowledges that his experience with Weinstein is minor compared to what others endured, but celebrates his comeuppance.
After appearing in several episodes of Seinfeld as David Puddy, Patrick Warburton has gone on to accumulate an impressive fortune. Even though Warburton was freaked out about being around Jerry Seinfeld when they filmed the legendary sitcom together, it is pretty clear he has the famous comedian to thank for his success.
Unfortunately for Warburton, however, some powerbrokers in the entertainment industry have not been helpful to his career. When he wasn't busy having "chilling" interactions with talk show hosts and severely mistreating female actors, Harvey Weinstein also made the time to cheat Warburton.
How Many Careers Did Harvey Weinstein Ruin?
Spoiler Warning: The following section refers to Harvey Weinstein's misdeeds in very general terms.
Between the 1970s and the late 1960s, Harvey Weinstein grew to become one of the most powerful people in the entertainment industry. Weinstein obviously owed much of his success to his eye for talent, but it turned out that there was a lot more going on behind closed doors.
For film fans with no connections in the business, it long seemed like Weinstein was loved by most people in Hollywood. After all, loads of actors lavished praise on Weinstein from award show stages. Then, the common perception of Weinstein changed forever when women started to come forward with stories of his abuse.
Sadly, there is no way to know for sure how many careers Weinstein ruined during his time in power. After all, there is no doubt that many people have kept silent about what happened to them. On top of that, some of the people whose careers were ruined by Weinstein may have never known what he'd done to them.
However, there have been several people who've come forward to reveal how Weinstein threw his weight around to ruin people he was mad at.
In 2018, Rosanna Arquette was interviewed by NPR. During the resulting conversation, Arquette spoke about being blacklisted in Hollywood after turning down Weinstein's advances. According to Arquette, Weinstein's efforts to ruin her career were so effective that she was still in exodus even after his crimes were exposed. "I don't have an agent. I think I'm still blackballed."
At various points, Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino both revealed that they rejected Weinstein, he threatened to ruin them, and he followed through. Sadly, some people don't believe women when they tell stories like that. However, Peter Jackson would later confirm that Weinstein instructed him not to cast either actor in Lord of the Rings.
“I recall Miramax telling us they were a nightmare to work with and we should avoid them at all costs. At the time, we had no reason to question what these guys were telling us. But in hindsight, I realize that this was very likely the Miramax smear campaign in full swing. I now suspect we were fed false information about both of these talented women.”
Tragically, these are only three examples of the many women who say they had their careers torpedoed for not giving Harvey Weinstein what he wanted.
How Did Harvey Weinstein Cheat Seinfeld Star Patrick Warburton?
After stories about Harvey Weinstein's conduct began to surface, it quickly became clear that he habitually victimized women in the entertainment industry. More than 80 women eventually accused Weinstein of horrible misconduct, he was put on trial based on some of those incidents, found guilty, and sentenced to 23 years in prison.
Given that Weinstein did horrible things to so many women, it makes perfect sense that has been the main source of outrage against him. With that in mind, most people likely never considered the idea that Weinstein would have messed with Patrick Warburton, the guy who played Puddy from Seinfeld.
Now that Weinstein no longer is in a position of power in the entertainment industry, nobody holds their tongue about him anymore. For that reason, it has become very clear that Weinstein used his former power in the business to cheat lots of people professionally.
In 2022, Warburton was interviewed by Brent Furdyk for the website The List. During the resulting conversation, Warburton was asked about the extensive work he has done as a voice-over actor during his lengthy career.
At first, Warburton spoke about how proud he was of his performance as Kronk from the Emperor's New Groove franchise. Warburton then went on to talk about some of the other projects he enjoyed providing his voice to.
Unfortunately for Warburton, he revealed that Weinstein got involved in the film Hoodwinked which he lent his voice to. As Warburton explained, he really enjoyed working on Hoodwinked but once Weinstein got involved, his experience turned sour.
"I loved doing the Wolf in Hoodwinked. That was a fun project, although I got screwed over by Harvey Weinstein — very much so. When I did Hoodwinked, it was an independent production. It was an independently produced animated feature. When I signed on to do it, I said, "Listen, I have to have some kind of back-end deal, since we're just getting paid scale."
Warburton continued, "Let's say, hypothetically, this becomes the first independently produced animated feature to get a major theatrical release. In case that happens, I need a contract. I had a contract, and then Weinstein saw it at the Berlin film festival. They bought it and they put it out there. Now Weinstein is in the animation business — a Weinstein film. It's not a Weinstein film; they just bought it and they put it out there.
After Weinstein bought Hoodwinked, Warburton tried to get paid what he was owed. "I go, "Well, now it is the first independently animated feature to ever get a major theatrical release. I have a contract. Harvey said, 'Sue me.' That's what he said: 'Sue me."
"He's got a cadre; he's got 20 lawyers that you got to keep busy, and it'll be more trouble than it's worth." Warburton continued "It was interesting to be one of the four main voices in a film that between domestic and worldwide and DVD made at least $250 million ... I made a total of about $20,000 on that movie because Weinstein ..."
Warburton went on to explain that people in the business were too afraid to tangle with Weinstein. "He was used to screwing everybody over, and he got away with it. I had a manager at the time who wouldn't even tangle with him. She's like, 'Well, it's Harvey Weinstein.'"
Fortunately, Warburton didn't make any attempt to compare what Weinstein did what happened to the former powerbroker's female victims. That said, Warburton went on to bring up Weinstein being convicted of crimes, and he seemed to relish that.
"Anyway ... He's getting his comeuppance, isn't he? Obviously, there are many of those who were treated way worse and got way worse from Harvey Weinstein, but that's my ... This is only my personal experience I speak of. That's the kind of person that he was, anyways."
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