Rose McGowan, Ashley Judd slam Harvey Weinstein's new interview insisting he's a champion of women

Suzy Byrne
·Editor, Yahoo Entertainment
Updated

Harvey Weinstein gave his first interview in more than a year — and it has not been well-received.

The disgraced producer spoke to the New York Post ahead of his rape trial next month. Weinstein, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by close to 100 women, talked about being “the forgotten man” in the wake of the #MeToo uprising against him, insisting he’s actually a champion of women, giving female filmmakers opportunities before it was “vogue.” Rose McGowan and Ashley Judd, along with Time’s Up, are slamming his new comments.

Weinstein granted the interview, with the paper’s gossip column Page Six, from the his luxury hospital suite at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he was recovering from spinal surgery to remove bone plates compressing his vertebrae. He said he didn’t want to speak about the allegations against him, but he did want to show the public that he’s not exaggerating his ailments, for which he had taken to using a walker at recent court appearances. However, he did gripe that the allegations again him have overshadowed his career achievements.

“I feel like the forgotten man,’’ said the 67-year-old, whose criminal trial — for allegedly raping a woman in a NYC hotel room in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on another woman at his Manhattan apartment in 2006 — is set to begin Jan. 6. (He has previously denied all accusations of nonconsensual sex.)

“I made more movies directed by women and about women than any filmmaker, and I’m talking about 30 years ago. I’m not talking about now when it’s vogue,” he said. “I did it first! I pioneered it!”

Weinstein went on to say, “It all got eviscerated because of what happened. My work has been forgotten.’’

He added, “I want this city to recognize who I was instead of what I’ve become.”

In the interview, Weinstein — who had luxe hospital accommodations, including a private chef, concierge and Italian linens — boasted about paying Gwyneth Paltrow, who alleged sexual harassment against him, “$10 million to make a movie called View from the Top” in 2003. “She was the highest-paid female actor in an independent film,” he said. “Higher-paid than all the men.”

He talked about buying distribution rights, via his company Miramax, to Paris Is Burning, about the lives of LGBTQ people of color in the 1980s, at Madonna’s urging, and later, via the Weinstein Company, putting out Transamerica with Felicity Huffman, playing a transgender woman.

“This was a company that took social issues and tackled them,” Weinstein said.

He also boasted about his charitable endeavors and told the paper, “I made a success out of myself. I had no money, and I built quite an empire with Miramax and decided to give back... If you remember who I was then, you might want to question some of this.”

The interview — in which Weinstein became testy at points, refusing to pull the plug, according to the reporter — has been widely criticized since it was first published. Time’s Up, an advocacy group born out of the accusations against Weinstein, released a statement from 23 of his accusers — including McGowan, Judd and Rosanna Arquette — condemning the interview.

"Harvey Weinstein is trying to gaslight society again,” it said. “He says in a new interview he doesn't want to be forgotten. Well, he won't be. He will be remembered as a sexual predator and an unrepentant abuser who took everything and deserves nothing. He will be remembered by the collective will of countless women who stood up and said enough. We refuse to let this predator rewrite his legacy of abuse."

McGowan, who claims Weinstein sexually assaulted her during the Sundance Film Festival in 1997, also posted a message directly to the man who for a long time she referred to as “the Monster.”

As did Arquette, who claims Weinstein stifled her career when she rejected his advances in the ‘90s.

Attorney Douglas H. Wigdor, who represents some of Weinstein's alleged victims, called Weinstein’s interview a publicity stunt.

"One cannot feel sorry for Mr. Weinstein while he sits perched in an executive private hospital suite and asks New Yorkers to recognize his prior accomplishments which justifiability have been overshadowed by his horrific actions, his complete failure to accept responsibility, and his recent efforts to force survivors to accept an inadequate and paltry civil settlement," Wigdor said in a statement to CNN.

Weinstein, via his bankrupt film studio the Weinstein Company, reached a tentative $25 million civil settlement last week with more than 30 accusers. He won’t be paying any money himself, according to the New York Times, it will be covered by the business’s insurers. Part of the agreement is the stipulation that Weinstein will not admit wrongdoing.

Many of Weinstein's high-profile accusers like Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek are not part of the settlement. Neither is Judd, who has filed a sexual harassment and retaliation claim against Weinstein nor McGowan, who filed a civil RICO case against Weinstein and his lawyers in October.

Weinstein’s criminal trial, on five charges of rape and sexual assault stemming from two incidents, is set to begin in NYC on Jan. 6. His bail was increased last week after repeated violations of his home ankle monitor system. His physical health was a topic of conversation after his last court appearance because he arrived using a walker. It was due to a back injury, sustained in an Aug. 17 car accident.

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