A little over two weeks ago, Hollywood was rocked by multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, assault, and abuse by successful film producer and Miramax co-founder Harvey Weinstein. Several actresses and other women working in the entertainment industry have since come forward identifying themselves as victims of this sexual predator. Originally, eight women were a part of a New York Times expose that brought these allegations to light.
Weinstein was a very powerful producer in Hollywood who could make or break careers and allegedly used his power to lure victims to hotel rooms or his home where he would then make unwanted advances. Actresses have said this happened many times over the past few decades. Rumors had apparently swirled, and people knew, but nothing was ever done. This is the problem. Any inaction allowed this misconduct to continue on for too long. This is why it’s so important that these women are choosing to speak out now.
1. Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Lawrence won an Oscar for the Weinstein Co. film Silver Linings Playbook, but never experienced any harassment herself. She released a supporting statement to The Daily Beast:
“I was deeply disturbed to hear the news about Harvey Weinstein’s behavior. I worked with Harvey five years ago and I did not experience any form of harassment personally, nor did I know about any of these allegations. This kind of abuse is inexcusable and absolutely upsetting.”
Days after the scandal broke and she released her statement, J. Law came forward with her own tale of Hollywood and the pitfalls of stardom as she spoke at Elle‘s Women in Hollywood event. “A female producer had me do a nude lineup with about five women who were much, much thinner than me. And we all stood side-by-side with only paste-ons covering our privates.” Another example of sexist and derogatory things women have to endure to follow their dreams of acting. Sadly, many feel they’re not able to say no without alienating powerful people who can help with their careers.
2. Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet gave an interview with the LA Times saying that any interaction she had with Weinstein was unpleasant. She straight up refused to thank him during her Oscar speech for The Reader, a film his company produced and financed back in 2009.
“I remember being told. ‘Make sure you thank Harvey if you win.’ And I remember turning around and saying, ‘No I won’t. No I won’t.’ And it was nothing to do with not being grateful. If people aren’t well-behaved, why would I thank him? The fact that I’m never going to have to deal with Harvey Weinstein again as long as I live is one of the best things that’s ever happened and I’m sure the feeling is universal.”
Kate has always been one to speak her mind honestly.
3. Meryl Streep
She’s Hollywood royalty but was unaware of the apparent predatory and abusive behaviors of Weinstein. She did speak out very quickly voicing support for the women who came forward.
In a statement to The Huff Post she said, “The disgraceful news about Harvey Weinstein has appalled those of us whose work he championed, and those whose good and worthy causes he supported. The intrepid women who raised their voices to expose this abuse are our heroes. One thing can be clarified. Not everybody knew.” She continued,”The behavior is inexcusable, but the abuse of power familiar. Each brave voice that is raised, heard and credited by our watchdog media will ultimately change the game.”
The two worked together many times over the years in the entertainment industry.
4. Kate Beckinsale
As a young teenager trying to start a career as an actress, 17-year-old Kate Beckinsale met with Harvey Weinstein. She says she was told to go up to his hotel room to discuss film roles where he answered the door in his bathrobe.
“I was incredibly naive and young and it did not cross my mind that this older, unattractive man would expect me to have any sexual interest in him. After declining alcohol and announcing that I had school in the morning I left, uneasy but unscathed,” she posted on Instagram. “A few years later he asked me if he had tried anything with me in that first meeting. I realized he couldn’t remember if he had assaulted me or not. I had what I thought were boundaries – I said no to him professionally many times over the years – some of which ended up with him screaming at me calling me a c*nt and making threats, some of which made him laughingly tell people oh ‘Kate lives to say no to me.'”
She also said that she believes rejecting his sexual harassment throughout the years has hindered her career.
5. Cara Delevingne
Model and actress Cara Delevingne shared her story: that she once received an inappropriate phone call from Harvey Weinstein questioning whether she’d ever slept with women she’d worked with. However, this wasn’t the last time she’d have an inappropriate encounter with the movie mogul.
On Instagram, she shared her story. “A year or two later, I went to a meeting with him in the lobby of a hotel with a director about an upcoming film. The director left the meeting and Harvey asked me to stay and chat with him. As soon as we were alone he began to brag about all the actresses he had slept with and how he had made their careers and spoke about other inappropriate things of a sexual nature. He then invited me to his room. I quickly declined and asked his assistant if my car was outside. She said it wasn’t and wouldn’t be for a bit and I should go to his room. At that moment I felt very powerless and scared but didn’t want to act that way hoping that I was wrong about the situation. When I arrived I was relieved to find another woman in his room and thought immediately I was safe. He asked us to kiss and she began some sort of advances upon his direction.”
Although she tried to spin the situation to a positive, singing for the two, she eventually realized that she was in an unsafe situation and decided to leave. As she departed, she said that Harvey allegedly tried to forcibly kiss her.
6. Jessica Chastain
Jessica Chastain took to Twitter after the scandal broke tweeting, “I was warned from the beginning. The stories were everywhere. To deny that is to create an enviornment for it to happen again.”
Chastain had never worked with Weinstein, but has been very vocal about the issues women in Hollywood and throuhout the world have to endure on a daily basis.
7. Lupita Nyong’o
Lupita Nyong’o wrote a powerful piece for The New York Times where she shared her experience with Harvey Weinstein. Nyong’o first met Weinstein at an awards show when she was still in college. They then had lunch and Weinstein invited her to his home to watch a movie with him and his children.
“Harvey led me into a bedroom — his bedroom — and announced that he wanted to give me a massage. I thought he was joking at first. He was not. For the first time since I met him, I felt unsafe.” After this encounter, they met for a meal again. “Before the starters arrived, he announced: ‘Let’s cut to the chase. I have a private room upstairs where we can have the rest of our meal.’ I was stunned. I told him I preferred to eat in the restaurant. He told me not to be so naïve. If I wanted to be an actress, then I had to be willing to do this sort of thing.”
Of all of the women that have accused Weinstein of misconduct and assault, this is the only allegation that he publicly acknowledged and disputed.
8. Rose McGowan
After The New York Times article was published, Rose McGowan has not been silent at all over the fallen producer’s alleged misconduct. In fact, she’s been even louder.
On her Twitter, McGowan accused Weinstein of raping her. She’s been called the voice of the Weinstein resistance and urged others to speak up “Yes, ladies of Hollywood, where are you? Ladies of Hollywood, your silence is deafening.” She also added, “Anyone who does business with __ is complicit. And deep down you know you are even dirtier. Cleanse yourselves.”
We don’t think she’ll be silent now after years of being told to keep quiet.
9. Amber Tamblyn
Amber Tamblyn has long been a victim’s advocate and wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times about her feelings on not being believed after opening up about an inappropriate encounter with actor James Woods.
“I was reminded of a memory from when I was 16. Mr. Woods attempted to pick me and a friend up when we were at Mel’s diner in Hollywood, seeing if we wanted to go to Las Vegas with him that very night. I informed him of my age, to which he said, ‘Even better.’ I told this story publicly as a way to back up the claim that Mr. Woods was, indeed, a hypocrite. Mr. Woods called my account a lie.” On Twitter, she supported the Weinstein victims as well: “Morning! Please stop holding actresses and women accountable for these silences and shaming them for not coming forward immediately. Stop.”
She has since also retweeted support for Weinstein to dismiss any non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) signed by women throughout the years to give them a voice.
10. Reese Witherspoon
Not a Weinstein story, but Reese Witherspoon was a victim of sexual assault as a teenager. She was assaulted by a director when she was only 16 but felt she had to stay silent or lose everything she wanted to do. She revealed this during her speech at Elle‘s Women in Hollywood event.
“I’ve had multiple experiences of harassment and sexual assault, and I don’t speak about them very often, but after hearing all the stories these past few days and hearing these brave women speak up tonight, the things that we’re kind of told to sweep under the rug and not talk about, it’s made me want to speak up and speak up loudly because I felt less alone this week than I’ve ever felt in my entire career.”
Her’s was one of many powerful speeches given at the recent event.
11. Rosanna Arquette
After speaking to The New York Times, Rosanna Arquette detailed an encounter in the ’90s when she was allegedly asked by Weinstein to massage him. In another instance, he attempted to put her hand on his penis and responding, “I’ll never be that girl.” Rosanna then found herself being removed from projects and having a hard time securing acting roles. She felt it wasn’t a coincidence.
12. Angie Everhart
Model and actress Angie Everhart spoke to a Los Angeles morning radio show on KLOS about her Weinstein experience.
“And I wake up, and Harvey is standing above my bed. That alone is frightening. All of a sudden he takes his pants down, and starts doing his stuff. And he’s blocking the door, I can’t get out … I don’t know how to say this on the radio, but [he] finishes on the carpet on the floor.” She even told people about the alleged assault and nothing was done. “Nobody did anything about it, nobody wanted to do anything about it, because everybody was terrified of Harvey.”
This was the first time she ever discussed this incident publicly.
13. Heather Graham
Heather Graham came out as another voice with claims of Harvey Weinstein’s abuse. In a piece written for Variety, Graham apoke out.
“‘I want to put you in one of my movies,’ he said and offered to let me choose which one I liked best. Later in the conversation, he mentioned that he had an agreement with his wife. He could sleep with whomever he wanted when he was out of town. I walked out of the meeting feeling uneasy. There was no explicit mention that to star in one of those films I had to sleep with him, but the subtext was there.”
She also appeared on The Today Show to discuss the big picture problem of harrassment.
14. Emma Thompson
British actress Emma Thompson calls it like she sees it. During an interview with the BBC, Thompson called Weinstein a predator.
“I think there are probably about a million missed opportunities to call this man out on his disgusting behaviou. rI don’t think you can describe him as a sex addict. He’s a predator. That’s different. He’s at the top of, as if it were the ladder of, a system of harassment and belittlement and bullying and interference. This has been part of our world, women’s world, since time immemorial.” She continued, “Does it only count if you have done it to loads and loads of women, or does it count if you have done it to one woman, once. I think the latter.”
Thompson and Weinstein didn’t get along during the making of the children’s film Nanny McPhee, a film Miramax owned.
15. Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron never had her own experience with assault and Weinstein but was one of the first A-list actresses to express support.
On her Instagram Charlize wrote,”The women who have spoken about their abuse are brave and although I didn’t have a personal experience like this with Harvey Weinstein, I unfortunately cannot say I’m surprised… A lot of these women are young, just starting out in their respective fields, and have absolutely no way to stand up to a man with so much influence, much greater than their own.”
16. Mira Sorvino
While making her breakout film Mighty Aphrodite, Mira Sorvino says se was propositioned by Weinstein for a massage as she revealed to The New Yorker.
“He started massaging my shoulders, which made me very uncomfortable, and then tried to get more physical, sort of chasing me around.” She was, however, able to leave the room.
Another night, he allegedly invited himself over to her apartment at midnight to go over marketing ideas, but left when she had told him she had invited a male friend over.
17. Angelina Jolie
The award-winning actress isn’t immune to unwanted sexual advances. This can happen to anyone and as soon as the Weinstein news broke, Angelina Jolie wrote a brief email to The New York Times.
“I had a bad experience with Harvey Weinstein in my youth, and as a result, chose never to work with him again and warned others when they did. This behavior towards women in any field, any country is unacceptable.”
She did not go into any further details of what specifically happened.
18. Gwyneth Paltrow
She was once touted as the “first lady of Miramax.” Before having won the Best Actress Oscar for Shakespeare in Love, she was cast as the lead in Emma.
In a reveal to The New York Times, Paltrow discussed her experiences saying she was invited to his hotel room and the meeting quickly took a wrong turn when Weinsetin allegedly asked for a massage in the bedroom. She said, “I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified…I thought he was going to fire me.”
Her boyfriend at the time, Brad Pitt, confronted Weinstein telling him to never touch her again. That allegedly resulted in Weinstein screaming at Paltrow for revealing what happened.
19. Ashley Judd
Ashley Judd has been a long time activist for Women’s Rights and gave a speech at the Women’s March back in January. She was the most recognizable of the eight women who first came public with all of the accusations against Weinstein in The New York Times expose. Almost 20 years ago, Weinstein invited her to his hotel for a breakfast meeting and allegedly opened the door in his bathrobe… a move many of the other women corroborate.
“I said no, a lot of ways, a lot of times, and he always came back at me with some new ask. It was all this bargaining, this coercive bargaining.” She recently said, “Women have been talking about Harvey amongst ourselves for a long time, and it’s simply beyond time to have the conversation publicly.”