Ashley Judd has detailed the sexual harassment she allegedly faced at the hands of Harvey Weinstein.
The 49-year-old actress was one of the first women to publicly accuse the disgraced producer of sexual harassment in The New York Times exposé, and she has now detailed her encounter with the mogul – who now stands accused of harassing or sexually assaulting over 40 women over a 30-year period – at his Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel room two decades ago.
She said: "I thought no meant no. I fought with this volley of ‘no’s’ which he ignored. Who knows, maybe he heard them as maybe. Maybe he heard them as ‘yeses’. Maybe they turned him on. I don’t know."
The ‘Divergent’ actress claims Weinstein – who was recently fired from The Weinstein Company – asked to give her a massage and told her to watch him shower, and after he refused to let her go, she finally told him she would do what he asked when she won an Oscar for being in one of his movies.
She added: "He just kept coming at me with all this other stuff, and finally I just said ‘When I win an Oscar in one of your movies, OK?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, when you get nominated.’ I was like, ‘No! When I win an Oscar.’ And then I just fled."
Ashley admits part of her feels "shame" for making such a deal with the producer, but understands she did whatever she could to get out of the situation, which she knows is "good enough".
She continued: "Am I proud of that? I’m of two minds. The part that shames myself says no. The part of me that understands the way shame works says ‘That was absolutely brilliant, good job kid. You got out of there, well done.’ It’s a very important word, shame, and it’s a very important thing to talk about. So we all did the best we can, and our best is good enough. And it’s really OK to have responded however we responded."
Ashley also claims Weinstein approached her about her deal a few years later when he thought he had found a script which would win her an Oscar, but says he "let her out" of the agreement.
Speaking to Diane Sawyer for an interview on ‘Good Morning America’ which aired on Thursday (26.10.17), Ashley said: "[He said], ‘Remember that little agreement we made. Think I got that script for you. Hey, just looking around for the material.’
"I was coming right at him … He looked at me and he said, ‘You know, Ashley, I’m gonna let you out of that little agreement we made. And I said, ‘You do that, Harvey. You do that.’"
Ashley Judd details alleged Harvey Weinstein harassment
