Cara Delevingne is the latest actress to come forward and share her experience with being harassed by Harvey Weinstein.
The model and actress posted to Instagram Wednesday, recounting a “very odd and uncomfortable call” with the film tycoon.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaHc485FRVx/
“When I first started to work as an actress, I was working on a film and I received a call from Harvey Weinstein asking if I had slept with any of the women I was seen out with in the media,” Delevingne wrote. “I answered none of his questions and hurried off the phone.”
Delevingne wrote that before she hung up, Weinstein said if she “was gay or decided to be with a woman especially in public” that she would never get a role playing a straight character or “make it as an actress in Hollywood.”
Following scathing allegations in the New York Times and the New Yorker of Weinstein harassing, sexually abusing, and raping women, more actresses including Asia Argento, Lucia Evans, and Angelina Jolie have come forward to share their stories. Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow told the New York Times that she was 22 when Weinstein harassed her, but she feared she would be fired for speaking out.
Delevingne wrote in her post that a year or two after the distressing phone call with Weinstein, she found herself in a meeting with Weinstein and a film director. Weinstein asked Delevingne to stay after the meeting.
“As soon as [Weinstein and I] 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,” Weinstein wrote. “He then invited me to his room.”
Weinstein’s assistant encouraged Delevingne to go up 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,” Delevingne wrote. “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.”
Thinking on her feet, Delevingne asked if Weinstein knew that she could sing.
“And I began to sing… I thought it would make the situation better… more professional… like an audition… I was so nervous. After singing I said again that I had to leave,” she added.
As she tried to leave, she blocked Weinstein from trying to kiss her.
“I still got the part for the film and always thought that he gave it to me because of what happened,” she wrote. “Since then I felt awful that I did the movie. I felt like I didn’t deserve the part.”
Delevingne appeared in the film Tulip Fever, for which Weinstein served as a producer. It’s not known if that’s the movie she refers to in her statement.
“I was so hesitant about speaking out,” Delevingne wrote. “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 has been publicly outspoken about her identity as “sexually fluid.”
In a second Instagram post, Delevingne encouraged women to share their stories of harassment or abuse.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaHdEdxFjST/?taken-by=caradelevingne
“I want women and girls to know that being harassed or abused or raped is NEVER their fault and not talking about it will always cause more damage than speaking the truth,” Delevingne wrote. “I am relieved to be able to share this… I actually feel better and I’m proud of the women who are brave enough to speak… This isn’t easy but there are strength in our numbers. As I said, this is only the beginning. In every industry and especially in Hollywood, men abuse their power using fear and get away with it. This must stop. The more we talk about it, the less power we give them. I urge you all to talk and to the people who defend these men, you are part of the problem.”
