Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein sat down for an hour-long interview with The Hollywood Reporter in which he discussed his time in prison and insisted he did not rape or sexually assault dozens of women, despite multiple guilty verdicts.
In the interview, published Tuesday, Weinstein said several times he never sexually assaulted anyone, claiming he was just “pushy” and “overly seductive.”
“Did I make a pass at some of these women unsuccessfully?” Weinstein said. “Did I overplay my hand? Yes. Was I pushy or overly seductive? Yes to all of that. Look, I should never have gone out with the people I went out with. I was married to a fantastic woman who had no idea what I was doing. I lied all the time. I improperly used my staff to hide these things. But did I ever sexually assault a woman? No. I never did that.”
Weinstein’s accusers helped kick off the #MeToo reckoning in 2017, when The New York Times and The New Yorker spoke to women who said the Hollywood producer had sexually assaulted and raped them. Weinstein was prosecuted and found guilty of rape in 2020 in New York. That case was later retried due to procedural errors in the first trial, and he was found guilty of one criminal sexual act but not another. He was separately convicted of rape and other crimes in Los Angeles.
Still, Weinstein claims all he ever did wrong was cheat on his wives. (He was married to Eve Chilton from 1987 to 2004, and Georgina Chapman from 2007 to 2017, when she announced their separation after the sexual assault allegations became public. Their divorce was finalized in 2021.)
But Weinstein admitted to THR that he had made people sign nondisclosure agreements and hired a firm to monitor his accusers and the press.
“Yes, but the thing I was doing wrong was not sexual assault,” he said. “It was cheating on my wife. I was desperate to keep that secret from her. I did not want Disney to find out. I did everything to protect myself from that kind of scandal.”
Most of Weinstein’s accusers say he lured them into hotel rooms or his office, where he coerced them into sexual acts or raped them. If they refused his sexual advances, as actor Ashley Judd said she did, Weinstein would retaliate by using his power and influence to damage their careers, they said.
Weinstein dismissed his accusers by telling THR that there was “money involved,” seemingly referring to Disney settling with some of Weinstein’s accusers.
More than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct, sexual assault, rape and more. The accusers include prominent actors like Rose McGowan, who accused Weinstein of rape; Salma Hayek, who said that when she turned down Weinstein’s advances, he threatened to kill her; Gwyneth Paltrow, who said Weinstein screamed at her when she refused to give him a massage; Angelina Jolie, who said she was propositioned by Weinstein; and Uma Thurman, who accused Weinstein of trying to “shove himself” on her.
Weinstein said he apologized to all the women who accused him “generally” because he “misled” them and “shouldn’t have been with them in the first place,” but denied that he had assaulted them.
“I misled them,” he said. “I cheated on both my wives. That’s immoral. But I did not assault them. That is the big lie of all of this. I won’t apologize for something I didn’t do. I will be proven innocent. That I promise you.”
Weinstein told THR that he still sees the children he shares with Chapman and speaks to his oldest child, Remy, whom he shares with Chilton. But he said his other two daughters with Chilton haven’t spoken to him in six years, despite his attempting to contact them “lots of times.”
“They never respond,” he said. “Their mother cut me off, too. It’s been radio silence from them ever since the allegations started.”
Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.
