The world was shaken with the #MeToo movement that engulfed Hollywood and then stormed various other industries globally. Things could have been different. And that 'different' film industry is what Ryan Murphy set out to create with the Netflix series, Hollywood. It started streaming recently on Netflix and shows us an alternate history of Hollywood. Including what would have happened with another infamous sexual predator in Hollywood, Henry Wilson, if things were different. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ryan even called Henry the 'gay Harvey Weinstein'. Hollywood Review: Ryan Murphy's Netflix Series Re-Imagines Hollywood History But These Fictional Happy Endings Are Far From Satisfying.
Murphy said, "All of that stuff about what Henry Wilson did is absolutely true. He was one of the biggest monsters in the history of Hollywood. Arguably, the gay Harvey Weinstein. He was that person. He would sign young actors if they agreed to sleep with him; he would exchange sexual favors for access. I thought it was a very interesting story about Henry Wilson. Like all monsters, there was a source from his pain in that he had had a relationship with a young actor earlier — and Jim [Parsons] has that monologue about Junior Durkin, who was killed in a car accident — and then Henry Wilson became an alcoholic. Nobody just wakes up and becomes a monster; there’s always something about them. What he did was horrible and we wanted to document that and I feel like a #MeToo story is a #MeToo story. It doesn’t matter what sex it is, it doesn’t matter what gender it is. It’s a violation in that way and what he did was incredibly extreme." Harvey Weinstein Gets Jailed For 23 Years In Rape and Sexual Assault Case, Netizens Hail #MeToo Movement.
Ryan added that his favourite part about the ending is how one of the victims of Wilson, Rock Hudson, refused to forgive him. The creator wanted Hudson to be empowered.
"Rock Hudson in real life was able to break away from Henry Wilson later in his career, and Henry Wilson had a very horrible ending where he basically drank himself to death and was destitute and lived in an apartment where he had paid his maid in furniture until there was no more furniture left. He had a very sad, tragic ending in which he was abandoned, and rightly so," he added.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 05, 2020 12:21 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).