Claire Forlani Says She ‘Ducked’ and ‘Dived’ to Escape Harvey Weinstein Encounters

Claire Forlani shared her experience of meeting Harvey Weinstein, adding her story to a growing number of women who have come forward with accounts of the producer involving sexual harassment or assault.

The actress appeared in “Boys and Girls,” a 2000 film distributed by Weinstein’s company Miramax. On Thursday morning, Forlani wrote on Twitter about her meetings with Weinstein.

“You see, nothing happened to me with Harvey — by that I mean, I escaped 5 times,” she wrote. “I had two Peninsula Hotel meetings in the evening with Harvey and all I remember was I ducked, dived and ultimately got out of there without getting slobbered over, well just a bit. Yes, massage was suggested. The three dinners with Harvey I don’t really remember the time period, I was 25. I remember him telling me all the actresses who had slept with him and what he had done for them. I wasn’t drinking the cool aid [sic], I knew Harvey was a master manipulator. He also announced to me at the last dinner I had with him at Dominic’s that his pilot knew to be on standby because he could never get me to sleep with him, to which I did what I always did, make light of the situation, a joke here or there and moved on. You see, I always thought I was a pro at handling these guys, I’d had a fair amount of experience. Sometimes I got angry, really angry. I wondered why I had Prey stamped on my forehead but this I kept to myself.”

Forlani said she decided not to participate in Ronan Farrow’s New Yorker exposé and regrets not sharing her story at that time.

“[Farrow] didn’t mention that it was about Harvey but when I received the email I instinctively knew it was going to be. I told some close men around me and they all advised me not to speak. I had already told Ronan I would speak with him but from the advice around me, interestingly the male advice around me, I didn’t make the call,” she recalled. “Today I sit here feeling some shame, like I’m not a woman supporting other women. I just read Mira Sorvino’s article in Time and she writes of how scared she was to speak out and participate. I take little solace in that.”

She went on to praise the women who have spoken up about sexual harassment over the years.

“I remember when Thandie Newton spoke out about a director that I had also had a disgusting experience with and I felt scared even reading what she said publicly about him, thinking, ‘Damn, she’s gonna get crucified for that,'” she said. “Yet I was in awe for her bravery and balls, she was a female crusader, modern suffragette and I loved her for it. But I also knew I didn’t have those balls, too scared of the repercussions this was because when you did react or tell a man to shove it, there were always repercussions. I was punished when I was brave. So I learned to let it go and carry on.”

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