HARVEY EXERTED FEAR AND AGGRESSION
few things in my life have been scarier than the sight of a raging Harvey Weinstein charging towards me. I encountered his viciousness at a Broadway premiere opening in 2008. His arms were flailing, his face nearly exploding with anger. We’d met previously on several occasions. He was brusque and bullish but I’d never known him to radiate such wrath, the epitome of aggression.
I had approached him to clear the air a month after a piece I had written about the pressures facing The Weinstein Company, which was struggling following a string of movie flops.
‘ You can’t cover any of my films after what you fucking tried to do,’ he shouted, jabbing his finger at me and storming off before I could reply that nothing in my piece, published in the Sunday Telegraph, had been factually inaccurate.
The feature didn’t dwell much on his personal life. In fact, careful not to overstep the mark, I left out stories I had heard about Weinstein’s intimidating actions towards crew members while in Spain on the set of The Business, a 2005 gangster movie.
The day after the business profile had been published, his PR representatives called repeatedly to ask why I had not contacted The Weinstein Company for comment. I had, in fact, made exhaustive enquiries to reach him. Once I’d sent them proof of this they stopped contacting me, but it was so intense that I had started doubting my own memory. I never wrote another feature about Weinstein. It was too much hassle.
I didn’t know the extent of his sexual misconduct. Most industry observers didn’t because he went out of his way to cover it up. His penchant for steamrollering over situations must have led those who perhaps did know to turn a blind eye.
What I faced was nothing compared to the catalogue of sexual misconduct Weinstein has allegedly perpetrated on actresses and models. But it gives me an inkling of how hard it would be for anyone to speak out about being violated by a man who exerted power and aggression with such ferocity.
The torment of people suffering from being emotionally exploited by Weinstein but afraid to speak out, until last week, because of his status in Hollywood and fear of retribution, is impossible to fathom.
As with many of the villains in the biopics Weinstein produced, the existence of a surrounding culture of fear and coercion enabled and encouraged him to get away with his behaviour for so long. Thankfully, the era of Weinstein’s colossal control now seems to be over.
I’m genuinely bored of how many times I’ve heard a defence from a man that goes along the same lines as this from Harvey Weinstein’s spokesman last week: ‘Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied… Mr Weinstein believes that all of these relationships were consensual.’
I’m not here to question the veracity of his statements. Weinstein will have plenty of time to do that himself. Personally, I believe the disturbingly endless stream of allegations speak volumes.
But what I do want to address is the concept of ‘consent’ – and how once again the predatory behaviour of men has become OUR problem.
To break it down. Consent is to give permission for something to happen. Or not. Its implication in a sexual context? That it’s for women to define where the line is drawn. You don’t like what a man is doing? YOU have to speak up. Otherwise what… he can behave as he likes?
The idea that men still think in terms of ‘consent’ is the most dangerous dogma of all. Because this isn’t about women saying ‘no’ (in the case of Weinstein, the ability to say that first ‘no’ appeared to be taken away from them the minute they were sent to a hotel room opened by an older man in a bathrobe). This is about men ‘knowing’. Weinstein didn’t need a no from a woman to
know that his behaviour was wrong. I hope the fact that he has declared he is heading off to rehab implies that underlying knowledge.
So – enough of consent. Don’t push a woman into a place where she needs to say no. Just
know. That’s what we need to teach society.