Lupita Nyong’o details multiple abusive, harassing incidents with Harvey Weinstein
Another day, another horrific first-hand account of Harvey Weinstein’s abuse and harassment of young women. Today the first-hand account comes from Lupita Nyong’o. Lupita first met Weinstein when she was still in graduate school at Yale, and he harassed and abused her on several occasions. She detailed their encounters in a New York Times op-ed published on Thursday, which you can read at this link:
Lupita Nyong’o writes in @nytopinion: What Harvey Weinstein did to me https://t.co/ry4oC28WQF pic.twitter.com/UbNEA2et16
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 20, 2017
Here’s the first incident of sexual harassment/abuse, courtesy of Variety:
According to Nyong’o, she met with Weinstein for the second time — after having initially met him in 2011 at an awards ceremony in Berlin while she was still in school at Yale — when he asked her to attend a screening at his home after sharing lunch at a restaurant. When she arrived at the restaurant in Westport, Conn., where Weinstein lived, Nyong’o described Weinstein ordering her a vodka soda and insisting that she drink it.
“Harvey told me that I needed to drink the vodka and diet soda. I informed him that I would not,” she wrote. “‘Why not?’ I remember him asking. ‘Because I don’t like vodka, and I don’t like diet soda, and I don’t like them together,’ I said. ‘You are going to drink that,’ he insisted. I smiled again and said that I wouldn’t. He gave up and called me stubborn. I said, ‘I know.’”
After finishing their meal, she and Weinstein relocated to his home, where Nyong’o was introduced to his domestic staff and children. Nyong’o wrote that she, Weinstein, and his children all began watching the film together. About 15 minutes into the film, however, Weinstein asked her to accompany him outside the room.
“I protested that I wanted to finish the film first, but he insisted I go with him, laying down the law as though I too was one of his children. I did not want another back-and-forth in front of his kids, so I complied and left the room with him. I explained that I really wanted to see the film. He said we’d go back shortly. “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. I panicked a little and thought quickly to offer to give him one instead: It would allow me to be in control physically, to know exactly where his hands were at all times.”
Nyong’o wrote that after he removed his shirt and she began giving him a massage, he asked if he could remove his pants. She said she would prefer that he didn’t and that it would make her extremely uncomfortable if he did so. Despite her protests, Weinstein got up to remove them, at which point Nyong’o moved toward the door.
“I opened the door and stood by the frame. He put his shirt on and again mentioned how stubborn I was,” she wrote. “I agreed with an easy laugh, trying to get myself out of the situation safely. I was after all on his premises, and the members of his household, the potential witnesses, were all (strategically, it seems to me now) in a soundproof room.” Nyong’o wrote that she “didn’t quite know” how to process the massage incident, and rationalized it. “I reasoned that it had been inappropriate and uncalled-for, but not overtly sexual. I was entering into a business where the intimate is often professional and so the lines are blurred.”
[From Variety]
Weinstein invited Lupita to a staged reading of Finding Neverland after this incident, and she went. She says Weinstein didn’t treat her badly that night and she simply wrote off the Westport moment as an “awkward encounter.” Then Weinstein invited her to have drinks with him several months later, and she agreed, thinking it was going to be within a group. It was not. She arrived before Weinstein and ordered something non-alcoholic. Picking up the story:
“Again he was offended by my nonalcoholic beverage choice but he didn’t fight me on it as hard,” Nyong’o detailed. “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. He said he had dated Famous Actress X and Y and look where that had gotten them.” Nyong’o said she was silent as she tried to think of something to say, and eventually declined politely, to which he responded: “You have no idea what you are passing up.” Nyong’o replied, “With all due respect, I would not be able to sleep at night if I did what you are asking, so I must pass.” At that point, Weinstein’s demeanor changed and he said, “Then I guess we are two ships passing in the night.” Nyong’o, not having heard the phrase before, asked him what it meant. He explained, and then said, “So we are done here. You can leave.”
Weinstein and Nyong’o left the restaurant, and Weinstein insisted on paying her cab fare. “Before I got in, I needed to make sure that I had not awakened a beast that would go on to ruin my name and destroy my chances in the business even before I got there,” she wrote. “‘I just want to know that we are good,’ I said. ‘I don’t know about your career, but you’ll be fine,’ he said. It felt like both a threat and a reassurance at the same time; of what, I couldn’t be sure.”
The next time she saw him, Nyong’o said, was in 2013 at an after-party for the premiere of “12 Years a Slave.” Weinstein found her and commended her for her rapid progress in the industry. “He said he couldn’t believe how fast I had gotten to where I was, and that he had treated me so badly in the past. He was ashamed of his actions and he promised to respect me moving forward. I said thank you and left it at that. But I made a quiet promise to myself to never ever work with Harvey Weinstein.”
[From Variety]
Lupita goes on to say that she wishes she had known that there were other women in the industry who she could have spoken to, and that she was taken aback by the fact that Weinstein was literally one of the first Hollywood people she had ever met, so she thought maybe all producers behaved that way. She says that she hopes this is a brand new day for women and victims of harassment, abuse and assault to come forward and speak up. Here’s hoping.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Source: Lupita Nyong’o details multiple abusive, harassing incidents with Harvey Weinstein
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