Lena Headey says that, at the end, Harvey Weinstein paid for her car and admonished her: “Don’t tell anyone!”
She describes how she sat down and cried.
In the wake of allegations that Harvey Weinstein raped and harassed women in Hollywood for decades, the Game of Thrones star is sharing the story of her own harrowing encounters with him.
In a series of tweets, Lena Headey shared her first, less frightening, encounter.
“The first time I met Harvey Weinstein was at the Venice Film Festival.”
What is it with Harvey Weinstein and film festivals? Actually, let’s not blame the film festival — it sounds like this is just part of who he is, wherever he goes.
“The Brothers Grimm was showing there, (during shooting I was subjected to endless bullying by director Terry Gilliam)”
It’s not really a surprise that a guy who directed a film that features a scene where a kitten is kicked into a mechanism that grinds it up isn’t the most pleasant person. (Seriously, who puts that in a movie?!)
“At one point Harvey asked me to take a walk down to the water, I walked with him and he made some suggestive comment, a gesture; I just laughed it off.”
Too many women are forced to laugh off comments like that in professional settings.
“I was genuinely shocked, I remember thinking, it’s got to be a joke, I said something like.. oh come on mate?!?? It’d be like kissing my dad!!”
We’re sure that he loved hearing that.
“Let’s go get a drink, get back to the others. I was never in any other Miramax film.”
Even a polite refusal can apparently have very real consequences.
Unfortunately, the second time — when she thought that she was safe after having rebuffed him — turned out to be much more frightening.
“The next time was in L.A. Years later. I had always carried the thought that he’d never try anything again, not after I’d laughed and said never in a million years. I believed that he respected my boundary and maybe he wanted to talk about potential work.”
We can totally see how that encounter, which sounded like more run-of-the-mill inappropriateness than a dangerous situation, could have given her a sense of security.
A false sense of security, as it turns out.
“He asked me to meet for breakfast. We ate breakfast, we talked about films, film making. He asked me a few questions about the state of my love life. I shifted the conversation back to something less personal.”
That coming up in a conversation can be a red flag, but a minor one.
“Then he went to the loo. He came back and said, let’s go up to the room, I want to give you a script.”
As you can imagine, this exchange — which should be perfectly innocuous — is where things take a turn for the worse. And Lena knew it.
“We walked to the lift and the energy shifted, my whole body went into high alert.”
You don’t always know when you’re in danger, but if you get a sensation of peril like that, you should almost always trust it.
“The lift was going up and I said to Harvey, I’m not interested in anything other than work, please don’t think I got in here with you for any other reason, nothing is going to happen I said.”
If you’re having a colleague tell you this, you’ve probably done something wrong — even if you don’t have any inappropriate intentions.
“I don’t know what possessed me to speak out at that moment, only that I had such a strong sense of don’t come near me.”
Now is where this gets very scary.
“He was silent after I spoke, furious.”
That’s not good at all. Plenty of sexual predators would have tried to diffuse the tension by saying “oh gosh, of course.” Which is also what a regular, non-evil person would have said.
“We got out of the lift and his hand was on my back, he was marching me forward, not a word, I felt completely powerless.”
If you’re wondering why she didn’t just scream, try to imagine that there’s no guarantee that anyone would investigate or even hear, and the terror of violent reprisal can keep a lot of women silent.
And then she was very, very fortunate.
“He tried his keycard and it didn’t work, then he got really angry.”
This time, at least, his anger didn’t seem directed at Lena.
“He walked me back to the lift, through the hotel to the valet, by grabbing and holding tightly to the back of my arm, he paid for my car and whispered in my ear.”
This is scary:
“Don’t tell anyone about this, not your manager, not your agent.”
The after effects of a situation like that can include a dramatic emotional release.
“I got into my car and cried.”
She escaped, but … that encounter can leave you traumatized for life. And with good reason.
Part of us wonders if it was really luck that stopped the keycard from working, or if some truly wonderful hotel employee had realized what Weinstein allegedly intended and disabled his card.
We may never know.
