Quote · The Louis Theroux Podcast
S8 EP4: Cara Delevingne discusses getting sober, engagement rumours, and being Karl Lagerfeld's muse
Where this was said
Identity, Coming Out, and Harvey Weinstein's Warning
At 40:30 · chapter starts 37:50
Louis navigates the question of Cara's sexuality with care. She explains her journey through the labels — bisexual, pansexual, lesbian — noting that finding men attractive doesn't preclude identifying as gay if you've never been in love with a man. She reflects on how hard being gay still was, even in an era of apparent openness: the instinct to take the easier path, the social pressure to pass as straight, and the feeling of not being fully seen even by the people closest to her who loved her. Then she drops the Harvey Weinstein disclosure: he called her directly to warn that being seen with a woman would end her acting career. She believed him. The revelation captures with brutal clarity how systemic homophobia operated in Hollywood — not as abstract prejudice but as explicit, targeted instruction from the most powerful gatekeeper in the industry. [1] — Cara Delevingne "Harvey Weinstein called Cara directly and told her to never be seen in a relationship with a woman, warning that being perceived as gay wou…" 40:05
Harvey Weinstein called Cara directly and told her to never be seen in a relationship with a woman, warning that being perceived as gay would end her acting career. She says she genuinely believed him and took it to heart. The call captures a broader industry pressure on gay performers that persisted long after audiences had supposedly moved on.
Harvey Weinstein called Cara and told her she would never make it in the industry if people thought she was gay, which she says she took deeply to heart at the time.
London Fields, the 2018 adaptation of Martin Amis's novel starring Cara, Billy Bob Thornton and Jason Isaacs, holds a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Cara's take: the book is incredible, the script seemed great, and sometimes you just have to try to adapt an unadaptable book to prove how unadaptable it is. She takes the distinction with disarming good humour.
