Cara Delevingne took to Instagram on Wednesday to speak out about a previous encounter with Harvey Weinstein that made her feel “powerless and scared.”
In the wake of numerous women coming forward with sexual misconduct and sexual assault claims against Weinstein, Delevingne wrote about a incident that happened years ago when she was launching her acting career. She described the movie mogul called her to ask if she had slept with the women whom she was seen with in the media.
“It was a very odd and uncomfortable call,” the “Suicide Squad” actress wrote. “I answered none of his questions and hurried off the phone, but before I hung up, he said to me that if I was gay or decided to be with a woman especially in public that I’d never get the role of a straight woman or make it as an actress in Hollywood.”
According to Delevingne, she met with Weinstein and a director in the lobby of a hotel to discuss an upcoming film a year or two later.
“The director left the meeting, and Harvey asked me to stay and chat with him,” she wrote. “As soon as we were alone, he began to brag about all the actresses he had slept with and how he had made their careers, and spoke about other inappropriate things of a sexual nature.”
Delevingne recalled that Weinstein invited her to his room, and she declined, but that his assistant said Delevingne’s car wasn’t available and that she should accompany Weinstein to his room.
“At that moment, I felt very powerless and scared but didn’t want to act that way, hoping that I was wrong about the situation,” she continued. “When I arrived, I was relieved to find another woman in his room and thought immediately I was safe. He asked us to kiss, and she began some sort of advances upon his direction.”
The “Paper Towns” star said she soon asked to leave, at which point she says that he tried to kiss her on the lips. She said she then managed to exit the room. She added that she later got the role in the film but has since “felt awful” that she took the gig.
“I felt like I didn’t deserve the part. I was so hesitant about speaking out,” she wrote on Instagram. “I didn’t want to hurt his family. I felt guilty, as if I did something wrong. I was also terrified that this sort of thing had happened to so many women I know, but no one had said anything because of fear.”
Delevingne’s story follows a steady stream of women with claims of misconduct and assault from Weinstein, including actresses Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and Asia Argento.
The full post is below.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaHc485FRVx/
A Short History of Harvey Weinstein's Oscar Campaigns (Photos)
Indie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who was fired last October from his position of co-CEO of The Weinstein Company, revolutionized the Oscar race both at TWC and his previous company, Miramax.
Harvey Weinstein first got into the Oscar race in a big way in 1990 with a "guerilla" campaign for the art-house drama "My Left Foot" by setting up meet-and-greets between Academy members and film talent. The result? Oscar wins for stars Daniel Day Lewis and Brenda Fricker.
Miramax snagged its first Best Picture victory for 1996's "The English Patient" -- which earned a total of nine awards, including for director Anthony Minghella and lead actress Juliette Binoche.
Weinstein built an awareness campaign for the then-unknown Billy Bob Thornton for 1996's "Sling Blade" -- which yielded an Oscar for his adapted screenplay and a nomination for Best Actor.
Miramax pulled off a double coup with 1997's "Good Will Hunting," delivering Robin Williams his long-awaited first Oscar and a rare screenplay prize for two twentysomething newbies, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.
One year later, Miramax pulled out all the stops after landing two Best Picture nominations, including for the Italian-language drama "Life Is Beautiful." According to Peter Biskind's book "Down and Dirty Pictures," star-auteur Roberto Begnini "moved into L.A. for a month during the peak of the voting period." The film came away with three Oscars, including Best Actor.
That year, Miramax pulled off a bigger upset when "Shakespeare in Love" seized Best Picture over Steven Spielberg's heavily favored "Saving Private Ryan." "Shakespeare" won a total of seven Academy Awards, including for actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Judi Dench.
Miramax surprised many by landing yet another Best Picture nomination for the 2000 Juliette Binoche-Johnny Depp bonbon "Chocolat."
In 2003, the Weinsteins had a hand in four of the five Best Picture nominees: "Chicago," "The Hours," "Gangs of New York" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" (on which they had producer credits). "Chicago" won the top prize -- as well as five others.
In 2004, Miramax took advantage of a careful reading of Academy rules and scored four nominations for the Brazilian inner-city drama "City of God" -- even though the film had failed to land a Best Foreign Language film nomination the previous year.
The Weinsteins exited Disney-owned Miramax and founded their own company in 2005 -- and got right back in the Oscar race with two nominations for one of their first releases, the Felicity Huffman vehicle "Transamerica."
By 2009, The Weinstein Company landed its first Best Picture contender with "The Reader" -- and also snagged Kate Winslet her first Oscar as Best Actress in a role that many thought was more of a supporting part.
Two years later, TWC scored its first Best Picture win for "The King's Speech" -- as well as three other awards, including Best Actor for Colin Firth.
The following year, Weinstein pulled off another coup: landing five Oscars, including Best Picture for the mostly silent, black-and-white ode to Old Hollywood, "The Artist."
In 2013, TWC again had two horses in the Best Picture race: Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained" and "Silver Linings Playbook" -- which landed Jennifer Lawrence the prize for Best Actress.
Last year, Weinstein successfully landed six nominations -- including Best Picture -- for Garth Davis' tear-jerker "Lion." But just as Open Road won the top prize in 2016 for "Spotlight," another upstart, A24, used a lot of Harvey touches to score the indie "Moonlight" a Best Picture win.
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This is the first Oscar season in decades without the disgraced mogul who challenged the major studios and changed the game at the Academy
Indie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who was fired last October from his position of co-CEO of The Weinstein Company, revolutionized the Oscar race both at TWC and his previous company, Miramax.