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The facts, as they stand today: convicted rapist and disgraced former Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein has been accused by nearly 100 women of various forms of sexual misconduct, leading to three jury trials, a raft of convictions (plus one overturned conviction, a procedural thing, not an innocence thing), a 23-year sentence for rape in the third degree (in New York), a 16-year sentence for rape and other crimes (in California), and another upcoming New York trial.
As of this writing, Weinstein has bounced around various prisons in New York and California and is currently being held at New York City’s notorious Rikers Island. He’s in his cell 23 hours a day. Two of his children refuse to speak to him. His brother Bob has cut ties with him. The only movies he can watch are the ones he can rent on his prison-issued tablet. He has a variety of ailments, now including bone marrow cancer. He’s, by his own admission, “dying here.”
So, when The Hollywood Reporter’s editor-in-chief Maer Roshan went to see him in January for a 60-minute interview, the longest the former super-producer has given since his convictions, he inevitably wondered just how much reflection on and ownership for his crimes Weinstein was willing to take. Turns out, not much.
In the interview, published today, Weinstein offers both a look inside his daily life (very different from how it was a decade ago, when he ruled Hollywood) and a glimpse into his own ego (very much the same, it seems). Most striking is that he maintains that he “did not assault” anyone.
By “anyone,” he means the nearly 100 women who have accused him of sexual misconduct in myriad forms, including rape.
Asked by Roshan if there is “any part of you that acknowledges that you wronged [your accusers],” and Weinstein was both resolute and seemingly delusional, playing off the convictions and accusations as him “going out” with the wrong women and being “pushy or overly seductive” with them.
“Did I make a pass at some of these women unsuccessfully? Did I overplay my hand? Yes,” Weinstein said. “Was I pushy or overly seductive? Yes to all of that. Look, I should never have gone out with the people I went out with. I was married to a fantastic woman who had no idea what I was doing. I lied all the time. I improperly used my staff to hide these things. But did I ever sexually assault a woman? No. I never did that.”
Later, Weinstein told Roshan, “The thing I was doing wrong was not sexual assault. It was cheating on my wife. I was desperate to keep that secret from her. I did not want Disney to find out. I did everything to protect myself from that kind of scandal.”
When asked if he ever apologized to any of his accusers, Weinstein said, “I apologized to them generally. You can’t call them when you’re in a trial with them. But I’ll say it here today: I apologize to those women. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been with them in the first place. I misled them.”
Roshan, to his credit, then told Weinstein that he was “not sure that’s much of an apology, honestly. It sounds like what you’re most regretful for is cheating on your wife. Are you sorry for your transgressions beyond that?” Weinstein answered, “I misled them. I cheated on both my wives. That’s immoral. But I did not assault them. That is the big lie of all of this. I won’t apologize for something I didn’t do. I will be proven innocent. That I promise you.”
Weinstein will again be in court on April 14, when he will be retried for rape.
You can read the full interview at The Hollywood Reporter.
English (US) ·