Lena Headey claims rejecting Harvey Weinstein’s advances could have affected her career and impacted ‘a decade’ of her working life.
The Game of Thrones actress told Sunday Times Culture section that after refusing to have sex with the movie mogul, she was no longer offered any jobs with Miramax – Weinstein’s highly influential production company.
The 45-year-old actress said: ‘After he was discovered to be a slime ball, on a grander scale than me just knowing it, I did start thinking, “Fuck, maybe because I didn’t shag him, that’s impacted a decade of my working life”, because I did two jobs for Miramax before those incidents, and after that there was nothing.’
Weinstein made two unwanted advances on Lena, both of which she recounted on Twitter back in 2017.
The pair first met at The Brothers Grimm premiere at the Venice Film Festival in 2005. The film was distributed by Miramax.
She said: ‘At one point Harvey asked me to take a walk down to the water, I walked down with him and he stopped and made some suggestive comment, a gesture, I just laughed it off, 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.’
Lena was never in another Miramax film again.
The next incident left the actress in tears after Weinstein invited her to his hotel room to read a script.
She said: ‘He asked me a few questions about the state of my love life. I shifted the conversation back to something less personal. 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.” We walked to the lift and the energy shifted, my whole body went into high alert, 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”.’
The producer’s reaction, she recounted, was furious, and he whispered in her ear: ‘Don’t tell anyone about this.’
Weinstein is currently set to go to trial on 9 May, being accused of ‘rape, criminal sex act, sex abuse and sexual misconduct for incidents involving two separate women.’
Last month, the case hit the news as one of his top lawyers, Benjamin Brafman is said to be withdrawing from the defense team.
Weinstein has denied all allegations of forcing non-consensual sex on the accusers.
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