Kate Beckinsale Shares Her Harvey Weinstein Story After His Conviction
Judge James Burke sentenced Harvey Weinstein to 23 years in prison on March 11. Weinstein will serve time for two convictions: first-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape on March 11. Following the sentence, Kate Beckinsale posted a photo to Instagram. She shared a detailed account of her own Harvey Weinstein story.
Beckinsale’s story did not involve a sexual assault, as many survivors of Weinstein came forward with since his indictment. Her story did share similarities with other abuses women experienced under Weinstein.
When Kate Beckinsale worked for Harvey Weinstein
Beckinsale starred in the 2001 romantic comedy Serendipity. She played a mysterious stranger whom John Cusack met one night in New York. Years later, Cusack encounters Beckinsale again on the eve of his wedding. The October release came when the city, the world and the industry was still recovering from 9/11.
Warner Bros. moved the release of Training Day from Sept. 21 to Oct. 5 and moved the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle Collateral Damage from October to February 2002. Serendipity came out on Oct. 5 and Weinstein insisted on the usual amount of publicity.
“These photos were taken at the premiere of Serendipity on October 5, 2001,” Beckinsale wrote. (Getty dates the premiere on Oct. 3, two das before its release.) “We all refused to go because holding a premiere mere weeks after 9/11 with the city still smoking felt like the most insensitive, tone deaf,disrespectful idea possible. But Harvey insisted. We flew into New York and somehow got through it.”
Harvey Weinstein contrived a meeting with Kate Beckinsale
Beckinsale and her costars dutifully walked the red carpet as expected. Then Weinstein asked to see her under false pretenses.
“The next morning Harvey called me and asked if I would like to bring my less than two year old daughter to his house for a playdate with his similar aged daughter,” Beckinsale wrote. “I turned up and he immediately called for his nanny to take the babies to another room to play. I went to go with them and he said “No, you wait here .”
Harvey Weinstein complained about how she dressed
Weinstein disapproved of Beckinsale’s premiere attire. Beckinsale repeated Weinstein’s explicit insults in her Instagram post. He used profane and sexually demeaning language to complain she should have dressed more scantily. Beckinsale tried to reason with him that the timing of the premiere made more conservative attire appropriate.
“The shock made me burst into tears,” Beckinsale wrote. “I tried to say, ‘Harvey,the city is on fire, people are still looking for their relatives. None of us even felt the premiere was appropriate much less coming out dressed like it’s a bachelor party.’ He said, ‘I don’t care – it’s my f*cking premiere.’ Screaming. Livid. I managed to get myself and my child out of there.”
Kate Beckinsale says Harvey Weinstein punished her
Beckinsale said hearing Weinstein was going to prison for 23 years was a relief. However, she added he committed “crimes” that did not go to trial.
“Yes that was one of many experiences I had that there was no recourse for, and falls under no felony,” Beckinsale wrote. “But I WAS punished for it, and for other instances where I said no to him for years, insidiously and seeming irreversibly.”
The crimes for which Harvey Weinstein did not pay
Actors such as Mira Sorvino and Ashley Judd found out after Weinstein’s arrest that he had sabotaged their careers. Peter Jackson and Terry Zwigoff confirmed Weinstein told them not to hire Sorvino and Judd. Annabella Sciorra said she could not find work from 1992 – 1995. That is the sort of punishment about which Beckinsale is speaking out.
“Hearing that he has gone to prison for 23 years is a huge relief to me on behalf of all the women he sexually assaulted or raped,” she wrote. “I hope will be a deterrent to that sort of behavior in this and any other industry. Having said that,the crimes that are not crimes,the inhumane bullying and sick covert abuse for which there is STILL no recourse no matter who you tell (and I did tell), these too need to go. I hope and pray that we as an industry can start to actually outlaw all abuses of power and expose them and eliminate them, for all genders, forever.”
Beckinsale concluded by acknowledging Rose McGowan, one of the many women who came forward with allegations against Weinstein.
“And Rose,brava ❤,” Beckinsale wrote.
How to get help: In the U.S., call the RAINN National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 to connect with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area.
