Robert Lindsay has claimed that Harvey Weinstein “destroyed” his film career, and described the disgraced producer as a “bully”.

The My Family and Citizen Smith star has also alleged that Weinstein blocked him from appearing in 1998 film Shakespeare In Love, despite having initially been cast in the film.

Lindsay’s involvement in the ongoing Weinstein scandal – which has seen a number of actresses accuse him of sexual harassment – came after Molly Ringwald mentioned Lindsay in a New Yorker piece, in which she spoke of their involvement on 1990 film Strike It Rich.

The 67-year-old actor had posted a series of tweets in which he wrote that “because I confronted (Weinstein) he basically halted my film career”, and that “Weinstein represented everything I came to hate about movies if he owned a movie he owned everyone in it”.

Referring to his posts, Lindsay told BBC Radio 2: “When you meet a bully, or a brick wall, called Weinstein – or people like him – who challenge your integrity and your morals… and with him, I did a film called Loser Takes All, a Graham Greene film, I was excited about it.”

Lindsay recalled a dinner he attended with his co-stars Ringwald and Sir John Gielgud – and producer Weinstein.

He said that Weinstein “had already fired the composer, the director and the editor and then he told us he didn’t like Loser in the title because American’s don’t like losers, we want to call it Strike It Rich”.

“And that’s when I lost my temper and had a go at him,” Lindsay said, adding that his friends later told him he had made a mistake.

He said: “At the time I felt I did the right thing, I was very angry, he ruined the film, he made a mess of it.”

Bafta and Olivier Award-winner Lindsay said, of nearly appearing in Oscar-winning film Shakespeare In Love: “I then was cast in a movie a few years later, on the Thursday.

“And then on the Friday night the director rang me and said they’ve decided to go with someone else, and I said, ‘but you cast me yesterday’.

Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein (John Stillwell/PA)

“Harvey decided he didn’t want me in it. And that’s when I realised I made a big mistake… but then I didn’t. I made the right decision.

“I’ve lived with anger for a long time, and when all these girls came out I thought, yes, good on you!

“He’s not just assaulted people, he has ruined careers. He had the power to do what he wanted to do with people’s lives.”

Lindsay said he is “proud” to still be working as an actor, “despite people like Harvey Weinstein”.

Ringwald wrote in her New Yorker article that she was “lucky” because she had not been sexually harassed by Weinstein, but that he had changed the poster for the film, putting her head onto the body of another woman, among other things.

“I wouldn’t have posed for a picture like that, since it had nothing to do with the character I portrayed; it struck me as ridiculous false advertising,” she said.

Ringwald also said she took legal action against Weinstein and his brother Bob Weinstein after she had “been denied the percentage owed to me” for the film.

She said: “I ended up suing them for the money, which I got, and I never worked with Harvey or the company again.”