Kate Winslet has branded Harvey Weinstein as "horrible to deal with".

Kate Winslet

Kate Winslet

The 42-year-old actress worked with the disgraced producer - who has been accused of sexually harassing over 80 women during a 30-year period - on several movies, and has said he labelled her as "difficult" because she refused to be "bullied by him".

She said: "He was just so horrible to deal with. I was one of the ones he would label 'difficult' because I wouldn't do the things he would ask for me to do on a business-level ... These were ridiculous requests ... He didn't like me because I wouldn't be bullied by him."

Kate scored her first movie role in 'Heavenly Creatures' in 1994, which was distributed by Weinstein's company Miramax, and the beauty says Weinstein was adamant he "gave" her the movie role.

She added: "He would come up to me every time I saw him, 'Don't forget who gave you your first movie!' He didn't 'give me' my first movie - I auditioned for four months. Peter Jackson gave me the part. But, you know, how dare he even sow that seed in my mind, that in some way any part of my career had anything to do with him rooting for me or pushing for me or putting my name forward."

Kate also worked with the producer's Weinstein Company in 2008 movie 'The Reader' for which she won her first Oscar, and says she made a conscious decision not to thank Weinstein in her speech.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter's 'Awards Chatter' podcast, she said: "I just thought to myself, 'Well, if I can just get my own back in some way at this awful man, I'm not gonna thank him. If I happen to win that Oscar [for 'The Reader'], I am not going to say thank you.'"