Romola Garai reveals how she felt 'violated' by Harvey Weinstein 'dressing-gown encounter'

Romola Garai, who claims to have had an encounter with the film mogul
Romola Garai claims to have had an encounter with the film mogul Credit: Fred Duval/FilmMagic

Actress Romola Garai is the latest in a string of Hollywood stars to accuse Harvey Weinstein of untoward and predatory behaviour.

She has spoken to the Guardian of how she felt "violated" by an alleged dressing-gown encounter with the film mogul.

The actress, who starred in Atonement and the BBC series The Hour, said she felt violated by Weinstein when she went to an audition at the age of 18.

Ms Garai said: "Like every other woman in the industry, I’ve had an ‘audition’ with Harvey Weinstein, where I’d actually already had the audition but you had to be personally approved by him.

"So I had to go to his hotel room in the Savoy, and he answered the door in his bathrobe. I was only 18. I felt violated by it, it has stayed very clearly in my memory."

She said this was typical of his approach to women in the film industry, and claimed he put them in "humiliating situations"  in order to prove "he had the power to do it".

The actress continued: "The transaction was just that I was there.

"The point was that he could get a young woman to do that, that I didn’t have a choice, that it was humiliating for me and that he had the power. It was an abuse of power."

Weinstein has been fired from the company he co-founded as it conducted an investigation into the claims made by women including actors Ashley Judd and Rose McGowan and stretching back years.

TV anchor Lauren Sivan also detailed an alleged 2007 encounter with Weinstein in a HuffPost report on Friday.

Sivan, then working at a New York cable channel, Long Island 12, alleged that Weinstein cornered her in the hallway of a Manhattan restaurant closed to the public and masturbated in front of her.

Sivan said she had rejected an attempt by Weinstein to kiss her. "Well, can you just stand there and shut up," she claims he responded.

Allegations emerged on Sunday that Weinstein called British actress Hayley Atwell that she looked like a "fat pig" in an incident in 2007.

License this content