‘I SAW HIM OPENLY GROPE WOMEN AT AN OSCAR PARTY. NOBODY DID ANYTHING’

Sonya Macari, Irish actress living in Los Angeles with her popstar husband Colin Devlin

IWAS at an Oscar event and I saw Harvey Weinstein surrounded by a bunch of young women. I remember thinking he was incredibly drunk. He was very dishevelled, very sweaty, his shirt was half open and he had the zipper of his pants down and he was mauling the women. They would pull themselves away and he would just keep at it. At one stage, he had his hand down his pants. It was quite gross. His behaviour was so inappropriate and disgusting and yet nobody went up to him and said: “What you are doing is wrong.” I was quite disgusted and shocked. He seemed like an utter pig.

I was recalling this night with my friend recently who was with me at the time and we were both texting going, “good God, do you remember that night?” and I said, “how could I forget?” and we were both saying it’s amazing that all of this is only coming out now. It’s mind-boggling. Harvey Weinstein is certainly not the only one. Dear God, no! The more people who come out to talk about their experiences, the better, because things have to change.

I can recall many situations with my husband saying: “God do you remember that casting director?” The guy would have been the biggest pervert on the planet. Or another guy asking personal questions about my relationship status. You’re sitting there thinking what has this got to do with what I am reading or the meeting we are discussing and you can tell, you can just tell. You can sense a mile away that their behaviour is inappropriate and they are instigating something in a very sneaky way.

I’ve had experiences in my career where I have come home and I was very honest with my husband and told him about men who had asked me out for dinner or a drink and I had to tell to take a hike.

The casting couch is alive and kicking and I believe a lot of women have experienced it. Despite how you look, these sexual predators will just make advances. Do I think my career could have been different? Who knows. Perhaps. You don’t really know. I think it is worth saying that if there was a lot more women in power there would be a culture change. They wouldn’t be in a position to need men to elevate them.