Harvey Weinstein Speaks Out: ‘I Did Offer Acting Jobs in Exchange for Sex, but So Did and Still Does Everyone’
Zack Sharf
Updated below.
Harvey Weinstein admitted to abusing his power during a recent interview with The Spectator magazine (via Deadline). The disgraced former head of The Weinstein Company has been accused of sexual harassment and/or abuse by over 100 women, many of whom are actresses in Hollywood and around the world. Weinstein is currently facing sex crime charges in New York City and has plead not guilty.
“Yes, I did offer them acting jobs in exchange for sex, but so did and still does everyone,” Weinstein admitted about many of the accusations against him. “But I never, ever forced myself on a single woman.”
Weinstein told The Spectator columnist Taki Theodoracopulos: “You were born rich and privileged and you were handsome. I was born poor, ugly, Jewish and had to fight all my life to get somewhere. You got lots of girls, no girl looked at me until I made it big in Hollywood.”
While Weinstein admitted to offering jobs in exchange for sex, he maintained he is not a rapist. The ex-studio head again denied claims from Asia Argento and Rose McGowan that he raped them. McGowan responded on Twitter to Weinstein’s interview by saying his statements are a “clear lie.”
Head over to The Spectator to read Weinstein’s latest interview.
Update: Weinstein’s attorney, Ben Brafman, has released a statement claiming that Weinstein never said this:
“I was present for the conversation; it was not an interview, but a social meeting between old friends. Harvey and Taki did not discuss the case, nor would I allow him to. We talked about old Hollywood and the contrast to European culture, and I think Taki sees Harvey in that older light. Mr. Weinstein never said anything about trading movie roles for sexual favors. You have my word that Harvey did not say that.”
Included in that statement is a clarification from the Spectator’s Taki Theodoracopulos, who now says he “may” have misquoted Weinstein:
“After 41 years as a Spectator columnist without a single retraction, I believe that I may have misrepresented Harvey Weinstein’s conversation with me in New York last month. I[t] was my mistake. We were discussing Hollywood and I may have misunderstood certain things about the methods of that place. I had nothing to do with the headline of my article and I hope I have not damaged his case. [I]t was, after all, a social visit.”
