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Topics: Celebrity
Gerrard Kaonga
Winona Ryder has spoken out about her 'weird' meeting with former film producer Harvey Weinstein.
Weinstein is one of the co-founders of Miramax, alongside his brother, Bob Weinstein.
The film production company produced a lot of hugely successful films, including Scream, Bridget Jones' Diary and a few of Quentin Tarantino's biggest hits like Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bill movies.
In 2017, Weinstein was sacked from the board of Miramax following allegations of sexual harassment, which included accusations from numerous actresses like Rose McGowan, Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow - with the many allegations against Weinstein being a huge catalyst for the '#MeToo' movement.
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The film producer denied any accusations of 'non-consensual sex' and pleaded not guilty to 11 assault charges, however, in 2020, Weinstein was found guilty of third-degree rape and a criminal sex act, receiving a sentence of 23 years in prison.
He was also sentenced a further 16 years after a trial in Los Angeles convicted him on two counts of sexual assault and one count of rape - in 2024, a New York court later overturned his 2020 rape conviction on the basis that he'd not received a fair trial.
In a new interview with Esquire, the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice star reflected on her encounter with the producer.
While Ryder did not experience any sexual misconduct at the hands of Weinstein, she did once have a meeting with him that resulted in her being 'screamed at by an agent'.
The Edward Scissorhands star said: “The one time I was supposed to have a meeting with [Harvey Weinstein], I went to the Miramax office and I extended my hand and he shook my hand and I sat on the couch and we had a conversation and I left.
“And [afterwards] I got like screamed at [by an agent]. ‘What the f*** did you do?’ I was like, ‘What?’ Apparently, I offended him because I extended my hand?… I guess.”
She also recalled an instance where Weinstein knocked on her trailer door during the filming of 1993's The House of the Spirits, and told her he wanted her to be in a movie that he was producing, Little Voice.
“And I was like, ‘Oh my God, I just saw that in London.’ I was like, ‘You have to cast that girl [from the play], Jane Horrocks. She’s f**king amazing.’ And he got very weird and he left.” Ryder said.
After that, she simply concluded ‘he did not like me’, though she further claimed that she thinks there might have been other reasons for why he did not hire her, adding: "I think I knew a little bit too much."
The Stranger Things actor noted that she did, however, experience some sexual harassment during her twenties and thirties.
“It wasn’t an assault. But it was incredibly inappropriate,” Ryder said. “It was wild. I really understand [what the victims of Weinstein and others went through]. I was lucky because I was known, so it didn’t happen as much as maybe it would if I had been a struggling actor.
“But I remember this feeling in your mind: you’re negotiating, you’re thinking about what’s going to happen if you say something. You’re working it out while this person is being extremely creepy.”
She has also spoken to her Beetlejuice Beetlejuice co-star Jenna Ortega about some of her past experiences and come to the realization of how awful they truly were.
Ryder added: “As I was saying it, I was like, ‘Jesus Christ, that’s really f***** up.’
“If someone was being inappropriate or drunkenly hitting on me it was like, ‘Ha ha!'
“You kind of do that. ‘Ha ha!’ Inappropriate? I dealt with that. But touching me? It felt very invasive.”
If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact The National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800.656.HOPE (4673) available 24/7. Or you can chat online via online.rainn.org Español: rainn.org/es.