“Riverdale” star Lili Reinhart (Betty Cooper) is joining the chorus of men and women recounting experiences of sexual harassment in the wake of the allegations of harassment, sexual assault and rape mounting against Harvey Weinstein in the past week.
Reinhart wrote on her personal Tumblr page that “in light of the Harvey Weinstein allegations,” she felt “the need to share a story of my own personal experience where a man in a position of power over me, used that said power to try and take advantage of me.”
She describes being attracted to an older man she was working with on a project as a teenager, and that “he tried to force himself on me when we were on a date.”
“I had to stop him and say “no, I don’t want that,” and “I can’t do that.” I physically walked away from the situation before it could get any worse,” she said. “I remember feeling like this was a scene right out of a horror movie.”
She got into his car, assuming he was going to drive her home, but quickly realized he was trying to take her back to his apartment. “I knew if I made it there, something bad was going to happen to me,” she said. Eventually, she convinced him to take her home, and the next day he told her that she was the one who misled him.
He continued to get angry at her and refused to speak with her. “I felt like I had genuinely done something wrong- that maybe I really was being a tease to him and led him to believe that I wanted to be with him sexually,” she said.
“Thinking back on it now, the situation is hard for me to swallow,” she said. “I was so young and didn’t know how to handle the situation. I just knew how wrong it felt and that I had been violated.”
“I understand how these women feel- the women coming forward about being harassed and assaulted by Harvey Weinstein,” she said, adding that she wants to help illustrate how common sexual harassment is in the industry. “I stand with them. I believe them. I believe in standing up for yourself as a woman and coming forward about sexual harassment.”
You can read Reinhart’s full account here.