[Announcer] The following program
contains allegations of sexual abuse
that some viewers may find disturbing.
(photographers chatting)
- [Narrator] Harvey Weinstein sat atop Hollywood
as one of the most successful and respected
movie producers in history.
But beneath the money and the fame was a monster,
hiding a dark and disturbing secret.
- So hot, that place, and so sexy.
You just get crazy thoughts there.
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] The truth cannot be hidden away forever,
and in Hollywood, when the movies end
and the credits roll,
the reality can be even more terrifying
than you could ever imagine.
(dramatic music)
- She's good, really good, she's good, she's wonderful.
- [Interviewer] She's got real charisma
and a presence about her.
- She does, she certainly does.
(dramatic music)
(somber music)
- People believe in you,
and it's not been fair
that you've used the power,
the gift that you have, you've turned
it into such a corruption to take
advantage of other people.
- I had created a safeguard of how
I could avoid those situations,
and I never was in a hotel room with him alone again.
- You're meeting with a very powerful guy in Hollywood
that makes a lot of actress's careers happen,
so when he said to go to the Peninsula,
I just thought, that's a bar, so fine.
So we met at the bar there,
and we talked for a few minutes,
and then he didn't really ask me,
he just said, "We're going upstairs to my room."
And I didn't really know how to take that.
I'm like, "What do you, I'm just?"
I didn't know how to say no to someone like him at the time,
which I regret.
- The next thing I knew,
he had unzipped his fly and pulled out his penis.
(dramatic music)
My heart started pounding.
My mind started racing.
How do I deal with this?
How do I get out of this?
Am I going to get out of this?
How is this happening?
He then grabbed my hand and pulled me towards him,
and forced my hand onto his penis and held it there.
He said, "Name anyone, any actress you can think of
"and this is how they made it."
I have told parts of this story
to only a very few people over the years.
I felt so powerless
because he is, after all, very powerful,
and very well known and very successful.
(dramatic music)
I didn't think anyone would believe me.
I was nobody.
Why would they?
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] New York City 1979.
Two brothers, having successfully built
a concert promotion business,
decide to gamble on a new business venture together.
They set up a small, independent film distribution
company called Miramax.
- Harvey thinks that he was in an alternate reality
actually, he thinks he's gonna wake up
and this is not the real thing.
- [Narrator] In just a few short years,
Miramax would grow to become one of the biggest
players in the entertainment industry,
and Harvey and Bob Weinstein
would become household names.
(dramatic music)
- Harvey Weinstein has been a mogul
in the entertainment industry for decades
and it really started in independent film,
and I think that's where a lot of people
got to know him and his brother Bob
from Miramax, the film company,
and especially in the 90s
when independent film was just absolutely everything,
they started to get more and more power in Hollywood.
Their company was eventually bought by Disney,
and of course that brought them more money,
more power, and I think that allure,
having a film made by Miramax, made by Disney,
was a really big deal.
- Harvey Weinstein was someone.
He was this kid from Queens, New York,
him and his brother.
They started off as concert promoters.
Harvey always had his plan in place.
He wanted to be a huge Hollywood player,
and he became that.
- Miramax became especially known
for their Oscar pushes for films.
They were the studio that if you wanted
to hold up that gold statue,
at the end of the season that you should go to,
so they had countless hits including
Pulp Fiction, Shakespeare in Love,
and through those they allowed
their actors and actresses
to say, "Thank you" to the Academy.
- I'm one of those kids from Brooklyn and Queens
who used to watch the Oscars
and root and cheer and had dreams,
and I just wanted to dedicate this
as everybody does, mine, anyhow,
to all those kids out there,
and tell 'em to break the rules.
- [Narrator] Miramax spearheaded some of the most
successful films of their time.
Pulp Fiction in 1994,
Good Will Hunting in 1997,
and Shakespeare in Love in 1998.
Their might in the industry was evidential,
recognized in their countless Oscars and accolades.
(dramatic music)
- Harvey was never liked.
People feared him.
People wanted to work with him,
people wanted him to put them on screen,
to get them an Oscar,
and he literally bought Oscars for everybody.
No one to this day can explain
how Shakespeare in Love beat Saving Private Ryan
for Academy Award for Best Picture.
The reason?
Harvey Weinstein.
And the same guy who is powerful enough
to beat Steven Spielberg
as best picture was powerful enough
to shut up any actress,
any starlet who complained about
the fact that he wanted to get naked with her.
(dramatic music)
- To be cast in a Miramax movie or Weinstein Company movie,
that's huge, that's big,
especially for someone who's just starting out.
Harvey was seen as someone who championed
these smaller films,
more artistic.
He was an actor's producer, a director's producer
for more refined tastes,
so to be cast in a Miramax movie,
to know that Harvey was behind you,
it was a great badge of honor in this town.
To know that Harvey Weinstein was pushing you
for an award for an Oscar.
You couldn't have asked for a better strategist.
- [Narrator] In 2005, Harvey and Bob
left Miramax and formed their own company,
The Weinstein Company.
(dramatic music)
- Well, Miramax, unfortunately,
we don't have the name,
but I think with directors
like Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez,
Anthony Minghella, John Madden, Marty Scorsese,
all coming with the new company,
it's sort of the ongoing business
without Mom and Dad's name.
We still own the name Dimension,
and if anybody can come up with a better name
than The Weinstein Company, we're all ears.
(laughing)
- Nothing's better than the Weinstein brothers,
so the name is great.
(laughing)
(dramatic music)
- I got to thinking about
what a great producer he is
and what it takes
to be such a great producer.
'Cause I've made so many movies
and I've worked with so many different
kind of producers.
And really, to be a great producer takes such heart.
To really put such love and care
and guts and balls into really making
a movie come together.
It takes so much.
You have to fight tooth and nail
to make a movie really come together
in the way that Harvey's made so many great movies
over all these years,
and to have him stand up for his artists
and for the scripts,
and for making those movies come together.
Harvey is an unbelievably astonishing killer producer
and his love for that and for his people
is just legendary,
and I just want you to know
Miriam, your mom, who I know
has raised a really good son
and I'm proud of you Harvey.
(applause)
And I mean that.
So thank you.
(dramatic music)
- Winning the best picture helps make the night go great,
and best actor didn't hurt
and best director didn't hurt that
and screenplay wasn't bad either,
so it was pretty great.
- [Interviewer] At this point in your career,
do these things still surprise you?
Are you--
- I loved it, it's fun.
Come on, I've been loving this since you're a kid.
It's like the world series for guys, okay?
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] Harvey seemed unstoppable,
but on October fifth, 2017,
his empire would come crashing down.
(dramatic music)
The New York Times published a comprehensive
investigation, exposing a horrific string
of sexual, predatory behavior and abuse allegations
by the most powerful man in Hollywood, Harvey Weinstein.
(dramatic music)
The allegations span three decades
and disclosed instances of indecent exposure,
inappropriate touching, non-consensual advances
and rape.
- What happened with Harvey,
we all knew he was a bully,
and bully's putting it lightly.
Bully sort of
encompasses everything now,
from simple name calling to physical attacks,
but he was mean.
He was degrading.
He had no problem calling someone stupid,
dumb, throwing things at people, flipping tables.
Everyone knew what he was.
This is again, this is not a surprise.
We all knew what a monster he was.
- [Narrator] In response to the New York Times article,
Mr. Weinstein issued the following statement.
I appreciate the way I've behaved with colleagues
in the past has caused a lot of pain,
and I sincerely apologize for it.
Though I'm trying to do better,
I know I have a long way to go.
- When The New York Times broke the story,
it wasn't the first time a news outlet had tried.
New York Magazine, New York Times,
both had tried in the past to do a piece
about Harvey Weinstein and all the rumors,
both times they were scuppered
by Harvey's team of legal eagles
who threatened and called up and screamed
and pulled out all these reasons why
they were gonna sue if the stories went public.
When The New York Times actually published the piece,
I believe that it was their thorough reporting
and also the willingness of a respectable actress
such as Ashley Judd to go on the record
about what had happened to her,
which gave it believability and credibility.
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] Actress Ashley Judd
was one of the first women to publicly
recount her ordeal.
She stated that over two decades ago,
she met Mr. Weinstein in his suite
at the Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel
for what she thought would be a breakfast meeting.
Once she arrived, Harvey allegedly pestered her
repeatedly for a massage
and then attempted to move her into the bathroom
so that she could watch him shower.
Judd immediately told her agent, Michelle Bohan,
but was helpless to take any further action.
- Ashley Judd's sit down with Diane Sawyer
is incredibly powerful.
In great part because she is a truly evolved human being.
She talks about her belief in a loving God,
and at the very end she says,
"I believe that Harvey Weinstein deserves forgiveness.
"He deserves a chance, he deserves to be loved."
And it was so gracious
that it just leaves with your mouth agape,
at how she could be so polite,
how she could be so forgiving,
how she could be so kind
to a man who is without a question a complete monster.
(dramatic music)
- I wish I could prevent it for anyone always.
I don't know that I would have been believed
and who was I to tell?
- I first heard the name Zelda as Harvey's assistant
about 10 years ago,
way before this happened.
She had signed an NDA but she was a friend of a friend
and I had heard through that friend
that some very unpalatable things had happened
during her time at Miramax, which is why she left.
She was not happy,
and she was disturbed by a lot of it,
and then, of course, you fast forward
to the scandal breaking
and Zelda, very bravely, decided to come forward
against the terms of her NDA and speak her truth,
and I think what I found most insightful
about what Zelda had to say
was to try and explain how this happened.
Everybody can read about this and think,
"Well, why did they go in his hotel room?
"And why did they allow themselves
"to get in this position?"
And you can judge and criticize,
but what Zelda explained was look,
Harvey regularly did meetings in his hotel room.
He had a suite, he always had a suite,
so there was a living room,
so male and female industry players
went up to his room and he took meetings there.
Male directors, male agents,
they sat in the suite and they took meetings,
so for Ashley Judd to go up to his hotel suite
was not her doing anything
that other people and men hadn't done previously.
Harvey took meetings in his room.
Zelda also went on to explain
that the position he was in,
how much power he had,
how attractive that was.
People wanted his attention.
People wanted to take meetings with him.
People wanted to be around him.
He used, abused, and manipulated this power,
but it's undeniable that he had that power.
The reason he was able to get away
with so much of this is because
people were afraid to turn him down.
Harvey wants to see you in his hotel suite,
of course, you're thinking,
"Maybe I can get a job.
"Maybe he'll cast me in his next movie."
It was a very difficult decision to make
and a lot of actresses who are now speaking out
saying that they went up to his room
and he was naked, he was in his bathrobe,
he asked for a naked massage.
He wanted to watch him shower.
Were horrified, horrified and shocked,
but the hotel room thing,
Zelda very clearly explains
was something that everybody did.
It wasn't just women,
but the women of course were the ones
who were preyed upon.
(dramatic music)
(suspenseful music)
- [Narrator] Actress Rose McGowan accused
Harvey Weinstein of raping her
at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival.
She also claimed that Amazon Studios
knew about the incident and yet neglected
to act accordingly.
- In 1997, Rose McGowan attended the Sundance
Film Festival along with Ben Affleck
and Matt Damon and Harvey Weinstein.
There was an incident that happened
in the hotel suite on the top floor
where Harvey Weinstein, according to Rose, raped her.
This is something that Rose is talking about
in her book, Brave, where she details
her experience at the hands of the Hollywood monster.
What's further disturbing
is that Rose came down the next day
and told, according to her, Ben Affleck
and Matt Damon, what Harvey had done to her,
and the reaction was to,
"Oh, I told him to stop doing that."
It wasn't, "Call the police.
"What can we do to help?
"Let's call a lawyer.
"Let's prosecute him."
It was, "I told him to stop doing that."
It was shrugged off, it was minimized,
it was brushed off,
and as Rose says now
that experience in that hotel room
has been strapped to her back for 20 years.
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] McGowan has previously said
she was not supported by her management
at the time of the alleged attack.
Jill Messick represented McGowan in 1997
when the actress alleged she was raped by Harvey Weinstein.
Since the claims have come forward,
Jill Messick tragically took her own life.
Messick's family confirmed
that she was used as collateral damage
in the Weinstein case.
This came after Weinstein's lawyer
published an email from Messick
to help deny McGowan's claims,
describing the incident as consensual.
(dramatic music)
- Everybody knew about Harvey Weinstein.
Everybody knew about his behavior,
yet nobody did anything.
That made it almost impossible
for anybody to come forward
and make any accusations,
so, for instance, a video surfaced
of Courtney Love saying how to get on in Hollywood
and what to do and what to avoid in Hollywood,
and she said, "If you get asked
"to go into a private party by Harvey Weinstein
"at the Four Seasons hotel, decline it."
- [Interviewer] Do you have any advice
for a young girl moving to Hollywood?
- I'll get libeled if I said it.
If Harvey Weinstein invites you
to a private party at the Four Seasons, don't go.
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] When Model Amber Battilana
came forward with her story,
she shared an audio recording
she had made from an encounter with Harvey,
confronting him after being harassed by him,
just the day before.
- [Harvey] I'm telling you right now--
- [Amber] What do we have to do here?
- [Harvey] Nothing.
I'm gonna take a shower.
You sit there and have a drink, water.
- [Amber] I don't drink.
- [Harvey] Then have a glass of water.
- [Amber] Can I stay on the bar?
- [Harvey] No, you must come here now.
- [Amber] No.
- [Harvey] Look, please come.
- [Amber] No, I don't want to.
- [Harvey] I'm not doing anything with you, I promise.
- I know. - Now you're embarrassing me.
- I'm sorry. - No, come in.
- [Amber] Yesterday was aggressive for me.
I need to know a person before--
- [Harvey] I won't do a thing.
(dramatic music)
- One of the most astonishing stories we heard
was Gwyneth Paltrow coming forward
and saying she too was sexually harassed
by Harvey Weinstein early in her career,
but then, we were even more astonished
that we found out that Brad Pitt,
who she was with at the time,
confronted Harvey,
and said, "Don't ever do this to her again."
He literally poked him in the chest.
To think of that experience,
while imaging Brad Pitt confronting Harvey Weinstein.
Everyone was shocked.
Not only did Brad Pitt confront a man
who sexually harassed Gwyneth Paltrow ,
but that man was at the height of his power.
This way the heyday of Miramax,
so for Brad to do that,
I imagine he was probably nervous, too.
He was probably nervous about his career also
but it's an incredible story.
- I would like to thank Harvey Weinstein
and everybody at Miramax films
for their undying support of me.
- Gwyneth Paltrow says
that when she was only 22 years old
that Weinstein invited her to a hotel room
for a meeting and then propositioned
and sexually harassed her.
Paltrow's allegations have become
some of the most wide spread in Hollywood,
where the women have said that Weinstein
invited them to a hotel room
under the guise of a meeting
and then asked them to give him a massage
or asked to be able to massage them.
That seemed to be his tactic.
- I had seen Harvey Weinstein on a host,
a myriad of red carpets,
but I first actually spoke to him
at the launch of Top Magazine in 1999.
It was a big party,
and they had taken all the top press
out to Ellis Island
where he arrived for the launch
of his new magazine.
Talk Magazine was going to be a way for him,
by the way, to control more journalists
because it was going to option
these great articles, Vanity Fair style
into movies and television programs,
and it was a way for him to expand
his media empire into print
and a way for him to have more power
than he already did.
I remember him well.
He was lord of the night
and he was very large, heavyset man,
and he walked around like he was King Henry the Eighth
reincarnated.
It was his kingdom, we were just there at his pleasure.
He was the man of the hour and the week and the month.
He was incredibly powerful,
particularly in New York, where I worked as a journalist.
He was maybe the most powerful man in media,
certainly in our city, in Manhattan for sure,
and his influence, his reach,
his control, his power was incredible.
I remember Gwyneth Paltrow was on the cover
of the very first issue of Talk
and inside, she did this very bizarre S an M
type of photo shoot,
really not her style and pictures
were very, very bizarre.
Gwyneth said later she had done the S and M shoot
as a favor to Harvey,
who had asked her to do it,
and she felt it was a bit exploitative,
but she did it for him.
Again, we started to see the dynamic
that he would set up with actresses
where he would live out his own fantasies
through persuasion and manipulation and negotiation
with them,
but Harvey Weinstein used to show up
at all the red carpet events, the Oscars,
that I would go to,
walk the red carpet,
and give some sound bytes.
I met him several times over the years,
he was always bombastic,
he was always opinionated,
he was always arrogant.
- To learn
that Angelina Jolie who also Brad Pitt was with,
early in her career,
she came forward and said that she was sexually harassed
by Harvey and then Angelina said
"From that day on, I said I will never
"make a movie with that man."
And she didn't.
- [Narrator] I had a bad experience with
Harvey Weinstein in my youth
and as a result, chose never to work again
and warn others when they did.
This behavior towards women in any field,
any country, is unacceptable.
(dramatic music)
(camera shutters clicking)
(somber music)
- He called me into his office
and told me to sit on the couch.
He then sat down next to me
and proceeded to tell me how things worked in Hollywood.
He asked me if I was good.
I started to tell him about my training
and my acting experience,
and he said, "No, I need to know if you're good."
He said that if he was going to introduce
me around town to directors and producers,
he needed to know if I was any good.
He had this sly, sleazy smile on his face,
and the fact that he was sitting so close
to me on this couch,
I started to get a sick feeling in my stomach.
The next thing I knew,
he had unzipped his fly
and pulled out his penis.
(dramatic music)
My heart started pounding.
My mind started racing.
How do I deal with this?
How do I get out of this?
Am I going to get out of this.
How is this happening?
He then grabbed my hand and pulled towards him,
and forced my hand onto his penis
and held it there.
I was frozen with fear.
Trying to remain calm,
trying not to freak out
because, after all, there was nobody else in the office.
I pulled my hand away as casually as possible.
He told me that this was how things worked in Hollywood,
and that all of the actresses
that had made it
had made it this way.
He said, "Name anyone, any actress you can think of,
"and this is how they made it."
He spelled it out for me.
He told me that first I would have sex with him,
and then he would take me to parties
and show me who I needed to sleep with after that.
On Monday, following that Friday nightmare
with Harvey Weinstein, I resigned from my job.
Not long after that, I quit acting.
I have told parts of this story
to only a very few people over the years.
I felt so powerless
because he is, after all, very powerful
and very well known and very successful.
I didn't think anyone would believe me.
I was nobody.
Why would they?
(dramatic music)
- Harvey Weinstein is hideous.
He's always been hideous.
His first wife, Eve, was his assistant.
Was an assistant who he undoubtedly
sexually cajoled and harassed in his position of power
into marrying him.
He used to leave flowers on her desk.
He seduced her with his power and his position.
They married, they have three children.
Eve decided very much to stay out of the limelight.
She raised their three children,
their three daughters in privacy.
Harvey continued to work the scene.
He continued to have affairs.
When I first met Harvey Weinstein,
he was still married to Eve,
but we heard stories repeatedly again and again
about various actresses he was having liaisons with.
That's what we thought,
but we knew he was cheating on his wife
and it was an open secret.
When Harvey and Eve finally divorced,
it was a shock to exactly no one.
It had been years since they'd been together.
It'd been years since they'd lived together,
and everybody knew about his womanizing.
When Harvey and Georgina got married,
it was a surprise.
First of all, Georgina had her own family money.
She had gone to private schools in the UK,
she was very posh and she was starting a fashion label,
Marchesa, seemingly on her own,
and she didn't seem to need Harvey,
so it was a bit of a surprise
when this young, stunning, beautiful woman
would actually marry this hideous, disgusting human being,
but she did.
Now, we come to find out that Harvey
threatened actresses all over Hollywood
that if they didn't wear his wife's gowns
on the red carpet,
he wouldn't put them in any more movies.
Felicity Hoffman actually confirmed
that she was ordered to wear Marchesa
on red carpets during her Oscar campaign.
Other actresses, Renee Zellweger,
were pressured and forced to wear Marchesa.
Harvey used his position of power
not only to abuse women
but also to force them to do things
that benefited him and his wife.
Georgina and Harvey went on to have two children together,
and initially, Georgina was going to stand by him.
Georgina issued a statement saying
that he was receiving therapy
and they were gonna work it out,
and then, of course, as we started to see
the dozens and dozens and dozens of women coming forward,
including allegations of rape,
she very quietly changed her mind.
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] Georgina Chapman, Harvey's wife
and fashion designer, founder of Marchesa
announced in a statement that she was leaving him.
"My heart breaks for all the women
"who have suffered tremendous pain
"because of these unforgivable actions."
Further adding,
"I have chosen to leave my husband.
"Caring for my young children is my first priority
"and I ask the media for privacy at this time."
- As soon as the follow up New York Times
piece came out where you had people
like Gwyneth Paltrow openly talking
about what had happened to them with Uncle Harvey,
as she sickeningly called him,
I knew his wife, Georgina, was gonna leave him.
There was no way that Harvey's wife
was gonna be able to withstand
all of these allegations
including the ones of rape.
It started out as he was a little creepy,
he wanted me to watch him in the shower,
or give him a massage,
and it ended with rape, sexual assault,
sexual predation and a systematic
pattern of behavior in which he abused
his power and abused women.
There's no way that Harvey Weinstein can weather
this particular storm.
No matter how good his team of public relations
experts, lawyers, bad guys, attack dogs
that he hires,
Harvey Weinstein has been exposed as a monster.
(dramatic music)
(camera shutters clicking) (dramatic music)
(man speaking indistinctly)
- Meeting Harvey was, for me, everything,
thinking this is an opportunity,
and so I,
everything in which I believed in,
and believing that there's a second chance for me,
he was that man.
He took hold of me
and pretty much forced me to walk
with him to the bathroom
where he stood me in front of the mirror
and he stood behind me
and I was like, "What are you doing?"
He's like touching me, rubbing me,
and he's like, "Just relax."
And I'm telling him to stop
and he would raise his voice
but at the same time, he kept reassuring me
that everything's going to be okay,
and he was rubbing my breasts
and he placed his leg between mine from behind,
and was rubbing against my vagina,
and he pulled, 'cause I had a dress on at the time,
and he pulled it down, exposing my breasts.
God, I feel so stupid.
I would say to him, "People believe in you
"and it's not been fair that you've used
"the power, the gift that you have,
"you've turned it into such a corruption
"to take advantage of other people."
(dramatic music)
- You're meeting with a very powerful guy
in Hollywood, that's makes a lot of actresses careers
happen, so when he said to go to the Peninsula,
I just thought, "That's a bar, so fine."
So we met at the bar there,
and we talked for a few minutes,
and then he didn't really ask me,
he just said, "We're going upstairs to my room."
And I didn't really know how to take that.
I didn't know how to say no to someone like him
at the time,
which I regret,
and as many times as I said no and resisted,
I just feel like that he was not
gonna let up on the idea,
and it's kind of like I felt too frozen
to run out of the room.
- In this case, we allege that
the Weinstein Company knew
that one of its key executives and part owner,
Harvey Weinstein, was engaging in sexual misconduct
and that he was using his position at
The Weinstein Company to bring young,
aspiring actresses into vulnerable places
where he would then prey on them.
- Oh, I was there with them
when we were shooting it in Barcelona,
and it's so hot, that place.
It's so sexy, you just get crazy thoughts there.
(dramatic music)
- [Photographers] Harvey, Harvey!
Harvey!
- He is really watching his entire career
collapse at this point,
and he's being kicked out of a lot of the esteemed
guilds and industry organizations.
We've seen him kicked out of BAFTA,
we've seen him kicked out of the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences.
He was just kicked out of the Television Academy,
Producer's Guild, nobody wants him, honestly,
because it's an honor to be in any of these guilds
or associated with some of the people
who have worked so hard in the industry,
and you know what?
At this point, we're just like,
"You're not holding up the ideals
"of the organization, so we have to say goodbye."
- Well over two thirds of the board of governors
decided that they weren't gonna put up with
all of these claims of sexual abuse
and they decided to revoke
Mr. Weinstein's membership in that Academy.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
board of governors met today to discuss
the allegations against Harvey Weinstein
and has voted well in excess of the required two thirds
majority to immediately expel him from the Academy.
We do so not simply to separate ourselves from someone
who does not merit the respect of his colleagues
but also to send a message that the era
of willful ignorance and shameful complicity
in sexually predatory behavior and workplace
harassment in our industry is over.
(dramatic music)
- We are here with yet another woman
who alleges that she was victimized by Harvey Weinstein.
- I was first introduced to Harvey Weinstein
at the European premiere of The Aviator in 2004.
After a few minutes of greetings
and normal conversation,
Harvey suddenly asked me if I'd give him a massage.
I said, "No, sorry, I'm not a masseuse."
And I suggested he contact hotel reception
with his request.
He kept asking about massages,
and so I felt the meeting was going nowhere
and I left.
He kept messaging and calling me
and even showed up at the apartment
where I was staying in the East Village
twice in one day,
literally, physically forced himself
in through the door, pleading with me
to come with him to Paris.
I found him overwhelming to deal with,
and I didn't know how to shut it down,
so I finally said, "I'm not coming to Paris with you
"and I hear you have a terrible reputation with women."
That's when he backed off.
He was extremely persistent and physically overpowering.
He then orally forced himself on me,
while I was on my period.
He even pulled my tampon out.
I was mortified.
I was in disbelief and disgusted.
I would not have wanted anyone to do that to me,
even if the person had been a romantic partner.
I remember Harvey afterwards rolling over
onto his back saying,
"Don't you feel we're so much closer to each other now?"
To which I replied, "No."
(camera shutters clicking)
A no is a no regardless of the circumstances,
and I told Harvey no.
(dramatic music)
- We need justice for these victims.
As soon as Mr. Weinstein completes his therapy
and returns to either New York or Los Angeles,
we urge him or his representatives
to contact me to discuss our plan for justice
for victims.
(dramatic music)
Vague apologies are not enough.
(somber music)
- I had created a safeguard of how I could avoid
those situations and I never was in a hotel room with him
alone again.
There's a lot of shame around that experience
and then you ask yourself,
"Why did I work for this person after that?
"Why didn't I see it in the way
"that the world has seen it now
"when it happened?"
I think that secrecy around it is probably
a big part of that.
There are days that I feel really angry,
and upset
and times when you feel that
that person really is a monster
and they deserve whatever is coming to them
but it's also not that,
I've found that's it not that helpful
for me in terms of my healing and understanding
to feel that anger.
It doesn't do anything to serve me.
- [Narrator] Actress Emma Thompson spoke
plainly and eloquently to the BBC
about the issues that allowed this abuse
of power to take place.
- They see their only choice to be this choice
that isn't a choice in fact,
it's about power,
it's about how am I, that I have no power,
and that's because in our systems
there are not nearly enough women,
particularly in Hollywood in positions of power.
There aren't enough women in the top of the tree
in the studios who could perhaps
balance everything out.
There aren't enough women on set.
There just aren't enough women, actually.
- In Hollywood, whenever there's a scandal,
everybody talks about redemption and rehab.
It goes in that order.
They beg for forgiveness
and they go to rehab,
whether it's for sex, 'cause they got caught cheating,
whether it's for drugs because they got caught
doing cocaine, whether it's for,
whatever it is,
they ask for forgiveness and they immediately
check into rehab.
We saw Harvey Weinstein do the same thing.
He gets called out as a rapist, sexual predator,
and the next thing you know,
he's checking himself into sex rehab.
Now, I loved what Emma Thompson said
when she sat down with Emily Madelis,
the journalist, and said,
"It's not about sex addiction.
"That's a different thing.
"This is about being a sexual predator."
And she really very nicely
drew the distinction, I think,
because it's one thing to try and borrow
someone else's disease or illness
in order to make your bad behavior seem more palatable.
Celebrities time and time again use rehab
as a way to redeem themselves in the eyes of the public.
It's not acceptable.
They need to own up and take responsibility
for what they've done.
In the case of Harvey Weinstein, initially,
it looked like he really thought
he was gonna get away with a quick fix.
Go to rehab, it'll blow over.
His wife was standing by him.
He hired a very powerful top lawyer,
Elisa Bloom, who was famous for representing women,
and I think he thought he had locked down.
If you look at his initial statement,
he throws out vague accusations
against the women who had come forward.
He implies Ashley Judd is mentally ill.
He denies every doing anything
that was not consensual,
and I think he thinks he's got it covered.
And it wasn't until five days later
when all the gate, the floodgates opened,
that I think he realized
this dozens and dozens of women
started speaking out
that actually there was no way
he was going to be able to contain the situation.
(dramatic music)
- The lengths to which Harvey Weinstein to go,
and his access, his ability to go to these lengths
to protect his name
and to protect himself from any accusations
were quite extraordinary,
so for instance, he hired Blackcube,
ex-Israeli intelligence officers
to find out who might be making allegations
against him and to shut them down.
That is an extraordinary powerful position to be in,
so again, when people say,
"Why didn't people speak up?"
So not only are you dealing with Harvey Weinstein,
not only are you risking your career,
not only are you gonna be blacklisted,
not only might you be counter-sued
for false allegations,
you're also gonna face the might
of all sorts of the murkier world
of intelligence and security
that are set up and designed to protect these men,
and men like Harvey Weinstein use that veil
and use that screen of protection,
and it makes them believe two things,
one, that they'll never ever ever get caught
and secondly, if they do get caught,
if something dares to accuse them,
they will crush the accuser like a fly.
- We walked out of the room and we lost,
and then I realized why I'm distributing
this money, because they picked on the wrong guy,
they picked on the wrong movie,
they picked on the wrong thing.
(applause, cheering)
- One of the great myths of Harvey Weinstein,
people will say,
"Well, it can't be that real."
"Because some of these allegations go back a long while.
"Why are these women coming out now?"
You imagine this scenario, okay?
You are a woman in a lower state of power,
relative to one of the most powerful men
in the entertainment industry,
one of the most powerful men in the United States.
This man knows everybody.
The top lawyers, top politicians,
presidents, every film director, every producer,
ever actor, everybody
acknowledges and bows down to Harvey Weinstein.
You haven't been touched inappropriately
in a vulnerable position with nowhere near
his economic power, his social power,
his political power, what are you gonna do?
You're gonna think, "That wasn't right."
And more often than not,
you may even turn round and think,
"Was it something I did?"
This is what's most pernicious
about people like Harvey Weinstein
because their power is so great
and the women he abused were powerless,
relative to him until now, relative to him,
they might think,
"Well, what did I lead him on?
"Was it something I did?"
And the answer to that is an absolute
and categorical no.
These women did not do anything
to encourage Harvey Weinstein
to engage with them against their consent.
And they have not only had to live
with the abuse, they've had to live
with the feeling of powerlessness
about having been abused
and also, feeling ashamed of it,
while Harvey Weinstein just goes on and on and on
and keeps doing it and doing it and doing it.
This is not just the insatiability
of dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain
that drives the reward system,
it's the insatiability of a powerful men
who preys on people that are weaker than him,
women that are weaker than him.
- Excellent girl, excellent.
No, there's no better.
You know what I mean?
She's just terrific.
She's good, really good, good, she's wonderful.
- [Interviewer] She's got a real charisma
and presence about her. - She does.
She certainly does.
- The whole thing about Weinstein
was about power, it wasn't about sex,
and because every time he expressed
what he considered to be his status,
his power, his dominance over women
he would get a chemical high, a dopamine high.
The reward system would kick in and say,
"Well done, Harvey."
And then, he'd go down after it.
It was known, some women reported him as being tearful
or crying or whatever it was.
He may be remorseful for a short amount of time,
but that is in no way gonna change
that behavior pattern,
because the craving comes back,
and then he does it again.
It could be touching a woman inappropriately.
It could be sexually assaulting her.
It could be rape, it could be anything on that spectrum,
but unwanted physical or emotional abuse
of a woman by a powerful man
and he thought he could get away with it,
and he couldn't stop the cravings,
because not all the money in the world,
not all the status in the world,
not all the power in the world
could stop that dopamine rush telling him,
"Go on, Harvey, do it again,
"'cause this is how we get pleasure.
"This is how we get off."
And when you're used to getting away with it,
when you've done it 10 times, 100 times,
1000 times, who knows how many times he did it,
over so many years,
and everybody knows about it
and he knows that everybody knows about it,
and he knows that everybody knows about it
and he's still getting away with it,
he's gonna keep doing it.
Harvey Weinstein was a man who groomed
an entire industry,
the entire film industry, the entire entertainment
industry was groomed by Harvey Weinstein,
and quite likely, people are standing up and saying
enough is enough.
If men get their rush from abusing women,
well, too bad.
They've got to pay a price for it,
and it's time for them to get their rush
and doing something else
that's safe and legal and consensual,
whatever that might be.
(dramatic music)
- There isn't really an answer for Harvey
in terms of his just going to rehab in Arizona,
saying he's going for sexual addiction
or anything else like that,
because he's a predator.
He clearly set the path and tried
to trap these women in his hotel room
or in his house,
wherever it was, he tried to make it happen,
and I don't think it's that simple
of going to one week of rehab
and just being like, "I'm sorry."
I have no sympathy for him,
because honestly, this is a behavior
that's gone on for decades
and one week of rehab is not going to solve
your problems.
- I think we're passed the point of sexual addiction here.
This is not a sex addict.
This is a rapist, this is a predator,
this is an abuser.
A victimizer,
he's a complete monster.
- Like a lot of malignant narcissists,
which I have no doubt that he is,
Harvey believed that he was capable of everything.
He was a super human, super power
who could do whatever he wanted to,
and get away with it.
All you have to look at is his initial statement
after the women bravely came forward in the Times,
after the New York Magazine piece exposed him
for being such a horrendous monster.
He still thinks he's gonna go to a quick trip
to Arizona sex rehab and be back
at the top of his game, no understanding whatsoever.
- There is definitely the appearance
that he is admitting to something inappropriate.
Or he's doing it 'cause he thinks
he can just do a public relations clean up,
that, "Okay, I'm gonna go to this place.
"I'm going to admit my problem.
"I'm gonna come out and tell everyone,
"look, I'm better now."
If I was a betting man,
I would bet on Harvey thinks this is a great public
relations move,
and I don't think it's gonna work
in any way, shape, or form.
Harvey is done.
Harvey's career in Hollywood is over.
I don't know where else Harvey can even
have a career
and now we're looking at prosecutors
in several cities around the world
who are looking into these rape allegations
and are looking to bring charges against him,
so if he is charged with rape,
either to trial or he does some sort of plea bargain,
he's looking at spending many years in prison
if not the rest of his life.
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] The sheer number of people
coming forward to share their own experiences
at the hands of powerful and dangerous men
in Hollywood shocked the world.
But to those in the industry,
this was nothing more than a long awaited spotlight
shining light on a dark truth.
- The idea of the casting couch
and the recent allegations that have come out
have not been shocking to anyone in Hollywood.
Unfortunately, the extent of some of the allegations
have been the most surprising thing.
I think people knew that it was not a very
well kept secret, that actors and actresses
were propositioned by directors
or spoken to inappropriately,
however I don't believe that the pervasiveness,
especially of the allegations against Harvey Weinstein
were known.
- The casting culture has been around since
the beginning of castings.
I know everyone says this, but it's true,
it's in every industry,
so we call it casting here in Hollywood,
but in another industry, they just call it applying
for a job, so it's really,
since the beginning of time,
since people had power
and there are other people who wanna
be part of their world,
there are people out there who take advantage
of that power, take advantage of people
who want something so badly.
- The Hollywood casting couch has been around
for as long as they've been making movies.
This is a dynamic where you have
a lot of very powerful men
and a lot of very young, beautiful women,
and it just has naturally evolved
into a very dark and ugly, predatory arrangement.
Going back all the way to the big studio heads
who wielded unprecedented power in Hollywood,
these men preyed, very frequently,
on young ingenue starlet actresses
and, in fact, one Hollywood mogul
even had an office next to his main office
where he would audition starlets every day
between four and 4:30 PM
and everybody knew what audition meant.
You have very famous stories of you actresses
like Shirley Temple, who had an MGM producer
expose themself to her when she was just 12 years old,
stories about Louis B. Meyer who was running
the big Hollywood studio at the time,
who was basically feeling up Judy Garland
every time she would come in.
She was a young singer, actress,
and he would put his hand on her breasts
and say, "This is where you sing from.
"This is how you sing."
And he used it as an excuse to molest her.
The stories that have long been apart
of Hollywood folklore
are dark and ugly,
but it's only now, I think,
in recent times that people are actually
calling these what they are,
which is sexual predation and in some cases, rape.
The Hollywood casting couch really is about power,
and you have a lot of very powerful men
who are taking advantage of that power.
We see it across all industries.
You see it in investment banking,
you see it in any industry where
there are a lot of men in positions of power
and women who are not.
In the years between something like 2006 and 2017
only 4% of Hollywood directors were female,
and 80% of those female directors
only ever got to make one movie.
The balance of power in Hollywood is massively skewed
in favor of men and anytime
you get a group of men that are this powerful
and women who are trying to break through,
there are always going to be those bad apples
who use their position of power
in a way to abuse women.
(dramatic music)
- So we've seen other cases in Hollywood
and these men have been forgiven in some ways,
but I think people are starting to reconsider
whether they should be forgiven.
You take a look at the Roman Polanski,
he was convicted of raping a 13 year old
and he had her under the influence of alcohol
and drugs, he was charged with sodomy and rape
and you have to sit there and take a look,
he's clearly guilty and he fled the country.
He did not want to serve any jail time,
but he's still been able to work
in the entertainment industry,
and he's been nominated for Oscars
and the actors will go and fly over to Europe
and work with him,
so clearly there's some sort of forgiveness
if you're okay with that,
and then you take a look at Woody Allen,
and again, A list stars are always
willing to work with Woody even though,
and we all know this, that he went
and had an affair with his stepdaughter
who was under 18 at the time
and then it continued on until
she was a legal age and now they are married
and they have kids,
but come on, it's really creepy,
and on top of that, he was then accused
of molesting another one of his wife's siblings,
and it's really complicated
and it's gross and everything else,
but again, actors aren't saying,
"You know what?
"I shouldn't be working with him."
But now I think people are really gonna
open their eyes.
- No one was immune.
Even Joan Collins, who was famous at the time,
and was up the lead part of Cleopatra.
Cleopatra, she was the front runner for the role,
and she said the director basically
said to her, "If you really want this role,
"you have to be nice to me."
Which in the 1960s meant have sex with me.
She didn't and she lost the role to Elizabeth Taylor,
but no one is immune.
Helen Mirren talked about how one particular
director, Michael Winner, treated her
like a piece of meat.
You go from the most prestigious powerful
respected leading lady
to the youngest ingenue reality star starlet,
everyone at every level seems to have experienced
something like this.
- One of the most famous cases
is Tippi Hedren and director Alfred Hitchcock.
Now he was obsessed with her
and she was a part of his muses
that they were called his icy blondes,
and I think what was interesting
is that in her book last year,
Tippi actually talked about several incidents
where he was sexually harassing her,
he was sexually assaulting her,
and she was constantly fending him off.
Oftentimes, he would throw himself on her.
He would touch her inappropriately,
and if she didn't respond,
he would not only be mean to her,
actually downright cruel,
but he also told her one time,
"I'm going to ruin your career
"if you don't sleep with me."
And essentially, that is what he did.
They were in the middle of filming Marnie
when he told her that
and he basically didn't talk to her anymore.
They finished the film,
but he made sure that she never worked again
and remember, her whole career was really started
thanks to Alfred Hitchcock
and he started it and he ended it.
He had that much power.
- I think it's been going on since man and woman
were put on this earth,
and I don't think there's anything
that's going to stop it.
I think that was has to happen
is young people have to be educated
in what they can accept
or what they should accept,
what they shouldn't accept,
and it should be made very clear for them.
Alfred Hitchcock told me he'd ruin my career,
and I stood up and as I was walking out the door,
I said, "Do what you have to do."
And I think it was the best door slamming
I've ever done.
This isn't unique to Hollywood.
It's just that Hollywood is more glamorous
and it's more fun to talk about
when it's an actress and a big producer,
and that makes a story.
That sort of activity needs to be brought out
and that there are women who will say no
and you are absolutely wrong in even attempting this,
and we have a right to act out
how we feel about that kind of thing.
- [Interviewer] To women who are wondering about
speaking out, what is your message to them?
- Keep it up.
It's the only way it's gonna stop.
You don't have to put up with that.
There's a not a reason in the world,
not a good one.
(dramatic music)
- More people come forward,
the more it's talked about,
the less victims are going to feel
like they don't have anywhere to go,
and now they can go somewhere,
it's not shameful, it's not something
that's going to threaten their entire lives.
That they could survive.
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] The Me Too movement
has only been made possible by social media
and even though the movement began
in response to the Weinstein allegations,
it has become a symbol of strength and unity
to all those affected by sexual abuse.
(dramatic music)
- So what was interesting about all of these Harvey
stories is that it really fueled a social media
frenzy with the hashtag me too,
and celebrity and TV star Alyssa Milano
really came forward and just started pushing
the hashtag and a lot of women
just started sharing their stories
and saying, "This happened to me when I was a kid.
"This happened to me in college.
"This happened to me last week."
And it was amazing to see
that not only was it happening in Hollywood,
it was happening in sports,
it was happening in the tech industry,
it happens in politics.
It's not just limited to Los Angeles.
It is happening all over the place
and I think women are starting to feel
okay about sharing their stories.
There's no shame.
We're here to support each other,
and I'm glad people are paying attention.
(dramatic music)
I think what's helpful in this situation
is social media has been a big player
when it comes to sharing these stories.
You realize that famous women
and not so famous women, people from just
average walks of life have experienced
the same exact thing
and realizing we're all the same,
and I think it's really helped everyone
feel better about the situation
and then now take action
on how we're not going to have this happen again,
and that's what we really saw
when it came to that me too hashtag.
- It's life changing, it's life changing,
and we create cultural content
and we know that we have to get our own house
in order, our representation of women
and people of color and LGBTQ folks
is frankly still really poor
and there's a lot of room for improvement,
and we have our 50 50 by 2020 push,
which is to have 50% women and 50% men
across all positions across our entire industry
including putting women in positions of decision making,
and through our leadership,
we hope that the rest of the country
continues to catch fire with this revolution
of safer workspaces for everyone.
(dramatic music)
- My greatest fear was that it would be
a flash in the pan and we'd move on to the next outrage
coming from the White House.
Instead, it really does feel like something seismic
is happening in the way we look at the balance
of power, the way women are excluded
from most of the areas of the decision
making level, in government, in boardrooms,
in business, in the media,
and the abuses that fall from that imbalance,
so that's what the correction is gonna be.
It's going to be very messy.
Somebody said in the Times Up group,
which I'm apart,
that we're building the airplane as we're
taking it out down the runway,
and that's the mess of it,
but I think it's a really, really valuable shift
that I feel happening.
- [Interviewer] What about the backlash
against yourself, obviously?
After you made that speech at the Golden Globes,
it's like you put your head above the parapet.
People are gonna take aim,
and it feels like that's what's happening with you
now, people saying, "Weinstein, she must have known."
- Yes.
I think I'm taking the hit for an entire group
of people who worked with Harvey Weinstein,
but the people...
What's difficult about this is that it precedes him,
these abuses,
and there was Roger Ales who ran the Fox Network,
there was Bill O'Reilly, who Fox paid out
35 million dollars in silence money to women
and sexual harassment suits.
In our country, the settlement of a sexual harassment suit
is a legitimate tax deduction.
It's built into the way of doing business.
This is outrageous,
and it is again, because the balance of power
that's off, as for me taking--
- [Interviewer] But you knew about these things,
you didn't know about these things until now?
- Well, the specific, no.
We know that people are jerks.
We know that there's a lot of people
that are assholes out there,
we know that there's a lot of people
that utilize their position and their gravitas
for something other, lot of times it's riches,
a lot of times it's just fun to be storytellers,
but a lot of times it's been able
to take advantage of the people
who are powerless against you.
That's, without a doubt,
that's been part and pull,
and you hear stories and you go like,
we all have joined a circus here,
and in that circus, there is going
to be all sorts of inappropriate messages,
inappropriate behavior,
and some stuff downright sexual predatory aspects of it.
What can come out of all this
is understanding, look, sex and flirting
and whatever you wanna call it,
affairs of the flesh are never going to go away,
but what can go hand in hand with that
is the parody that where you work
actually reflects the rest of the world,
that it's not one gender having control
proportionally, when in fact it should be
somewhere around 50 50
and when it is 50 50,
I think there's gonna be board members
who are gonna say,
"We are paying out millions of dollars for what exactly?"
And then you're gonna see-- - Won't happen.
- And then you're gonna see a difference.
- [Interviewer] If you were on the set together
and you wanted to put your arm round Meryl,
you know each other really well as friends,
put your arm around Meryl's shoulder,
touch her on the knee,
are you thinking twice about things like that?
It works both ways, of course, doesn't it?
This is the debate that's going on now.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
No, I wouldn't think twice about it,
and also, with actors, it's a very different thing.
Tom's not employing me.
It's a different thing
when there's an imbalance in the power dynamic.
If somebody's somebody's boss
or potentially a woman is trying to get a job,
it's a very, very different thing.
In the United States, there was a newscaster
who had a button under his desk
that would lock the door
when his young women interns would come in.
These are abuses beyond imagining, honestly,
and shouldn't be in the workplace.
Everybody deserves a workplace
that's respectful and safe.
That's the simplest piece of it.
- Well, first of all, can I say
I think that the women who've come forward
and talked about their experiences
in relation to this individual
have been very brave to do so
and I commend them for doing that.
We have an independent body
here in the UK that looks at these issues
that will look into the issue
as to whether his honor should be taken from him.
They will do that independently,
and I think we just let them get on with that job.
- What's interesting is I hear a lot of people
saying when speaking about girl's empowerment,
finding and knowing their worth,
or women's empowerment as well,
you'll often hear people say,
"You're helping women find their voices."
And I fundamentally disagree with that
because women don't need to find the voice.
They have a voice.
They need to feel empowered to use it,
and people need to be encouraged to listen,
and I think right now in the climate
that we're seeing so many campaigns,
Me Too and Times Up,
there is no better time
than to really continue to shine a light
on women feeling empowered
and people really helping to support them,
men included in that,
I mean, it makes such a tremendous difference.
- I think the good thing that is happening
with the Harvey Weinstein situation
is the fact that it is going to be a domino effect.
We are going to see women finally saying,
"You know what, I'm not going to accept this.
"I'm gonna tell people about what happened to me
"so they can learn from that experience."
And we have seen that start to happen
with Kevin Spacey, we've seen allegations
against even Ben Affleck,
we've seen allegations against Bryan Singer, the director,
and we are starting to see,
it's like a house of cards,
it just literally is starting to fall away,
and we've heard like five, six, seven stories.
I think there's a lot more to come.
- He might be exceptional in terms of the years
and the number of women he targeted,
but this is a culture in Hollywood.
It extends well beyond Harvey Weinstein.
There are dozens of other Harvey Weinsteins
in Hollywood.
(dramatic music)
- Look, for every story about Gwyneth Paltrow
or Charlize Theron being sexually harassed,
there are also stories
about all very, very famous leading men
also being harassed.
A lot of them haven't come forward
so I can't name their names,
but I can talk about Kevin Spacey and Anthony Rapp.
Anthony Rapp is a young actor,
was at the time, in particular on stage
who worked with Kevin Spacey,
when Kevin Spacey, according to him,
tried to seduce him.
Anthony Rapp was one of the first, very brave men
to come forward and say it's not just women,
this happened to me.
I think there are a lot of men
who are straight, who are living as straight men
who have been preyed upon by other men
in the industry but because of perhaps embarrassment
or confusion or not wanting to come out
as having had a gay sexual experience
with a man in power,
it has caused a certain reluctance on their part.
Perhaps they feel they have more to lose
in terms of their public image
to admit that they slept with a powerful male producer
or director in order to get a film role,
but virtually all, quite a few of our most famous
leading men have been harassed as well.
- The fact that somebody that powerful,
his career has been completely ruined,
and I think that's a real message
to anybody who would behave like this,
and I think that social media
has given everybody a voice and a platform
and everyone realizes that they're not alone
and women realize that they're not alone
and that their voice matters and their voice can be heard
and that means behavior's going to change.
- We've seen the Bill Cosby stories,
we've the president of the United States tell us
exactly what he does,
we've seen this go on and on and on,
and I think we have to get to the point where
maybe this is it, maybe this is the watershed moment,
where we believe women,
where they feel safe, that they can talk about
what they're experiencing.
- So we've heard a lot of people
from the industry talk about it,
recently we had both Matt Damon and George Clooney
talking about the situation.
They've both worked with him in different capacities
over the years and Matt really owes
the beginning of his career to Harvey Weinstein,
and he said, "I didn't know this was going on
"and it's shocking in some ways,
"but I have to make sure that I'm protecting
"the actresses around me
"and I don't condone this behavior or anything else
"like that and I don't wanna be apart of it."
And I think for George Clooney, he said,
"I did hear stories.
"Harvey would tell me stories
"about some of my female friends,
"and he said that he had slept with them.
"I just didn't think that they would do that
"and I didn't believe them,
"but in the long run, I should have been
"more proactive about calling him out on that
"or making sure that my friends were protected."
And so we're seeing A list celebrities
willing to speak out
although everybody's wondering
what Uma Thurman has.
She recently spoke and said,
"I'm too angry right now to speak."
And she worked extensively with Harvey,
so I don't know whether she has a personal story
or she knows of things that happened,
but she certainly,
when she's ready to talk,
I think everyone's ready to listen.
- So I've been waiting
to feel less angry,
and when I'm ready,
I'll say what I have to say.
- [Narrator] It would only be months later
when she was able to share her story.
According to Thurman in 1994, London Savoy hotel,
Harvey Weinstein pushed her down
and tried to force himself upon her.
She said, "He did all kinds of unpleasant things
"but he didn't actually put his back into it
"and forced me.
"You're like an animal wriggling away, like a lizard."
She said a bunch of flowers arrived the next day
with the note reading,
"You have great instincts."
- To check what we say,
how we say it, who we say it to
is to put that in the spotlight
is a good thing.
And as Dylan said, the times they are a changing.
- It started a few weeks before the Golden Globes
in 2018, we started hearing that actresses,
stylists, were pulling black.
There was a full page ad in one of the Hollywood
magazines, trade magazines, that said,
we're wearing black as a sign of solidarity.
Hashtag times up,
Times Up is the statement being made
that we will no longer tolerate sexual predation.
We will no longer tolerate sexual abuse.
Your time is up as a predator,
so in solidarity, we had virtually every actress
in Hollywood wearing black,
black dresses as a way to show that they were united
against the abuses that had been going on.
Everyone was there to make a statement
about times up, this is over,
and then of course, you have Natalie Portman
on stage announcing the nominees
for best director, and she pauses and says,
"And here are the all male nominees for best director."
It was a very powerful moment
and the reason is, what Natalie Portman
was alluding to is the real problem.
The real problem is that there are so few women
at the table in Hollywood.
There are so few women in positions of power
behind the scenes.
It's still very much a male dominated industry
where women don't have a voice,
and as long as women don't have a voice,
there are always going to be abuses of power.
- I think everyone is going to be talking about
this moment tonight
and we are amplifying what a lot of people
have been working for in the country a long time
for social justice
and I think because we're Hollywood
and we're in the spotlight,
sometimes I feel like we have a responsibility
to address issues and especially
in light of what just happened last year
and all these brave women coming forward
and telling their stories
about harassment and sexual abuse
in the workplace.
- This is just the beginning of people talking about it,
talking on a red carpet about such things,
there's gotta be a good move.
- What's so hopeful is that the fact
that women now are speaking up.
They're going on Twitter and saying,
"This happened to me."
Is giving a lot of men pause.
I was told that Leo DiCaprio,
who's famous for his love of very young models,
has been extra careful as of late
in social situations
when he tries to pick up young girls
because he's now over 40
and very powerful and even actors like DiCaprio
who are in this Lothario category
are changing behavior because they don't want
to be accused of something later on down the line.
I do think behavior will change, is changing.
The real work that has to be done
is giving women more of a voice in Hollywood.
I don't think until women have more power
it's ever gonna go away,
but I do think there's an awful lot
of very nervous men in Hollywood at the moment.
The day that the Harvey Weinstein story broke,
you could literally hear the men in Hollywood
picking up their phone and calling their lawyers
and saying, "How much trouble am I in?"
It caused a ripple effect of fear
and panic amongst Hollywood moguls
and agents and managers who had abused
and continued to abuse their power
with their leading ladies.
(dramatic music)
There are, of course, a lot of women
who agreed to the terms that Harvey Weinstein
and other men like him set out,
and they used it to advance their careers.
I think a lot of those women are silent now
or they're speaking out about the fact
that they were forced into the situation.
It's certainly true that this game,
this negotiation, I should say,
of sexual favors in exchange for power,
has been going on and continues to go on
in every industry.
I think in Hollywood, it's so public
and it's so abused and it's so common
and now, obviously, so exposed.
I think for a lot of women,
Harvey Weinstein preyed, manipulated,
and forced himself on them
and in the confusion and the pain and the trauma
of the aftermath,
some continued to be his girlfriend,
some continued to have a sexual relationship with him,
but I think psychologically
there's a lot at play there,
but it could be that it's easier
to believe that the man who abused you
was your boyfriend, you just hadn't started dating yet
than it is to acknowledge the fact
that you were raped.
That someone forced himself on you,
and I think for some of these women
who seem quite vulnerable,
once Harvey has assaulted them,
they convinced themselves
that there was a relationship there
in a way to help their own self esteem
and self worth and a way to handle the situation
which would have been very traumatic,
and a way to justify perhaps what they felt
was their own guilt and shame,
which they shouldn't have had,
but is normal to have,
and their dirtiness about it.
They felt and they wanted to make themselves
feel better and so they went on
to have a relationship with him,
but it doesn't change the fact
that they were abused, they were assaulted,
they were preyed upon.
Whatever happened after that
doesn't negate the fact
that what he did was wrong.
(dramatic music)
- Hopefully, it's an end to this whole culture of fear
and the abuse of actresses
and I think the story,
I'm sure more is to come out,
because if actresses lived under this fear
that their career might be affected,
then that clearly indicates
it's not just that one person.
There must have been other people.
There must have been a group of people
to be able to represent that level of fear.
I hope also it means that people
now are much more confident about speaking out,
and that's not just women,
that's men as well,
men who's women friends have told them about an incident,
something that men have to speak out as well.
- It feels disheartening,
the whole time feels disheartening,
seeing it all the time on television,
everything, it's oppressive.
It's good because I think it's catalyst for change.
I think anger's a great catalyst for change,
and being in reality about what's really going on
is really healthy.
We're not always all able to do it,
'cause we look at it sometimes,
it's like, terrifying.
- Who knew this movement would take place?
It was very much necessary
and a long time coming,
and when we were making it,
I definitely felt like,
"Wow, this is a really great girl power message."
And that was the term that was being used,
when we were making it, girl power.
- My heart goes out to anyone
who suffered through that kind of experience
and abuse and I hope,
I'm thankful that women who suffered through that
have their voices heard
and as a community we can come together and say
that's not socially acceptable,
and we're not gonna stand for that kind of behavior
and put a stop to it.
- All the stuff's being revealed now
and now we have to make a decision
about who are going forward,
and it isn't just about women,
it's about white supremacy, it's about race.
It's a new time,
and we all gotta stick together,
we all gotta cross our comfort zones,
we all gotta speak up for each other,
if we wanna change the world.
If we don't wanna change the world,
then we stay silent and quiet
and let the secrets persist
and everything will stay the way it's going right now.
- It's women's minds, women's bodies,
and so they have control of that,
and so there's need to be respect there.
There's a line, no means no.
- What's going on in Hollywood, I believe,
is solidarity.
It's what happened when all these women
shared their story and said, "Me too."
What happened was connection
and that's what we all live for,
we live for belonging to a community,
and the community has now said,
"You know what?
"We're ready to be inclusive."
I do think it will extend beyond award season
and what I hope is that it sends a message
to women who are still in silence,
because of trauma
and who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder
or depression or contemplating suicide,
because of the trauma of rape or sexual assault,
I want them to have permission to speak up.
I want them to have permission to say--
- It's really important.
- That it wasn't my fault,
and to out the perpetrator.
That's what I'm hoping.
(dramatic music)
- The real problem is that there are so few women
at the table in Hollywood.
There are so few women in positions of power
behind the scenes.
It's still very much a male dominated industry
where women don't have a voice,
and as long as women don't have a voice,
there are always going to be abuses of power.
What we've seen in recent times
is women have found a voice.
Things like Twitter and social media
give someone like Rose McGowen a massive platform
in which to express herself.
Prior to social media,
women didn't have a way to communicate
to millions what had happened to them,
outrage, fear, anxiety, complaints.
They didn't have a voice.
They didn't have a platform.
Now, everybody has a chance.
Everybody has a voice, everybody has a platform.
- It's an important moment and maybe a turning point.
I hope it's a tipping point.
The fact that all these women
have been brave enough to come out and speak
and when you're not in a powerful position
and the person that you're telling on,
as it were, is,
there can be a cost.
People can be very critical.
- It was just disgusting,
and the stories that have come out are heartbreaking,
and I really commend the women
who have been willing to step forward now
and tell their stories,
but I think it's important that we
not just focus on him and whatever consequences
flow from the stories about his behavior,
but that we recognize,
this kind of behavior cannot be tolerated anywhere.
(dramatic music)
- First of all, I think that cultural change
is always difficult but we continue to move forward,
not withstanding forces that would like
to move us backwards,
women have understood the truth about sexual harassment
and abuse for generations,
but the freedom to speak out and be believed
and be heard is so important
and I believe there's a shift
and I think that from below the line
to above the line, there's a recognition
that we wanna provide access and opportunity
not to be generous but because if you open the door,
the stories are robust and diverse
and different and that we all have a right
to do what we love.
(dramatic music)
- People believe in you
and it's not been fair
that you've used the power,
the gift that you have, you've turned it into such
a corruption to take advantage of other people.
- I had kind of created a safeguard
of how I could avoid those situations
and I never was in a hotel room with him alone again.
- You're meeting with a very powerful guy
in Hollywood that makes a lot of actress's careers happen,
so when he said to go to the Peninsula,
I just thought, "That's a bar, so fine."
So we met at the bar there,
and we talked for a few minutes
and then he didn't really ask me,
he just said, "We're going upstairs to my room."
And I didn't really know how to take that.
I didn't know how to say no to someone like him
at the time, which I regret.
- The next thing I knew,
he had unzipped his fly and pulled out his penis.
My heart started pounding.
My mind started racing.
How do I deal with this?
How do I get out of this?
Am I going to get out of this?
How is this happening?
He then grabbed my hand and pulled me towards him
and forced my hand onto his penis and held it there.
He said, "Name anyone, any actress you can think of
"and this is how they made it."
I have told parts of this story
to only a very few people over the years.
I felt so powerless
because he is, after all, very powerful
and very well known and very successful.
I didn't think anyone would believe me.
I was nobody.
Why would they?
(dramatic music)
- I would not have wanted anyone to do that to me,
even if the person had been a romantic partner.
- We need justice for these victims.
As soon as Mr. Weinstein completes his therapy
and returns to either New York or Los Angeles,
we urge him or his representatives
to contact me to discuss our plan for justice
for victims.
Vague apologies are not enough.
- [Narrator] UK police are now investigating
allegations made by 10 women against producer
Harvey Weinstein,
so as more and more people bravely come forward
with their own stories,
more and more powerful men in the industry
are beginning to fall
as their misconduct is being exposed.
Kevin Spacey, Louis CK, Ed Westwick,
Dustin Hoffman, James Toback, Woody Allen,
Roman Polanski,
no longer can the industry tolerate
this kind of behavior.
The truth is out and it is being heard.
(dramatic music)