After convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in jail this week, actress Kate Beckinsale shared a story of her own scary encounter with the producer, who has been accused of sexual assault by numerous women and was found guilty of third-degree rape and first-degree criminal sex act last month. In an Instagram post, Beckinsale shared a photo of herself and a photo of Weinstein from the premiere of Serendipity in October 2001.
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The actress wrote that while her cast “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,” she adds that Weinstein “insisted,” prompting everyone to attend in light of the attacks. The next morning, Weinstein called Beckinsale and asked whether she wanted to bring her daughter Lily, who was under 2 years old at the time, “to his house for a playdate” with his daughter, who was similarly aged.
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“I turned up and he immediately called for his nanny to take the babies to another room to play,” Beckinsale wrote. “I went to go with them and he said ‘No, you wait here.’ The minute the door closed he started screaming ‘you stupid f—ing C—, you C— you ruined my premiere.’ I had no idea what he was talking about and started to shake.He said,’If I am throwing a red carpet you get in a tight dress, you shake your ass you shake your tits you do not go down it looking like a f—ing lesbian you stupid f—ing c—.’”
She admits the “shock” of his message made her “burst into tears,” as she tried to reason with Weinstein. “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—ing premiere and if I want p— on the red carpet that’s what I get.’ Screaming. Livid.”
The 46-year-old said that she managed to get herself and her child out of there, adding it was “one of many experiences” she had that there was no recourse for, and “falls under no felony.”
“But I WAS punished for it, and for other instances where I said no to him for years, insidiously and seeming irreversibly,” she continued before reflecting on Weinstein’s prison sentence. “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, and 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,” the actress concluded. “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.”
Photo Credit: Getty / Axelle/Bauer-Griffin
