Chalk up another actress to the ever-growing list of women who claim Harvey Weinstein, 65, allegedly sexually assaulted or pulled skeevy moves on them. Anne Heche, 48, says that the disgraced film producer tried to get her to perform oral sex on him and when she said no he fired her from a Miramax project. The Blackout star told her story on the “Allegedly with Theo Vonn & Matthew Cole Weiss” podcast that she had a terrifying encounter with Weinstein but never spoke out because, “First of all, you were threatened the second you walk out the door” of his hotel room.
“I personally did not suck Harvey’s d*ck, although he showed it to me and I got out of the room before there was any physical contact,” she revealed. “The fact is, I was fired from a job I had been hired for in Miramax. The repercussions of standing up for yourself were as deep and targeted as some of the scars of the women who actually got more physically unfortunately involved.”
She said that Harvey allegedly preyed on her when she was a young woman, which fits the pattern of his other accusers who say he allegedly victimized them when they were still up and coming actresses. “That’s why every one of us was 19, 20, 21 or 22. He didn’t go after the 40-year-old woman,” Heche said. “He hits on me when I’m 19, 20, 21, 22, vulnerable, scared, frightened.” In a sad but empowering twist, The Brave star said that being a childhood sexual abuse survivor gave her the strength to say no to Weinstein. “If I wasn’t sexually abused as a child, I don’t know if I would have had the strength to stand up to Harvey and many others,” Heche explained. MANY OTHERS? Oh man it sounds like there were even more skeevy pervs in Hollywood that she encountered. The actress revealed in her 2001 memoir Call Me Crazy that she had been molested as a child.
“The efforts he made to have people followed, have threats, he fired people. You’re talking about girls, young actresses are very vulnerable. A lot of us come from hurt backgrounds,” she continued. “What happens when you come from a broken place, you don’t have any guidance, you don’t have support, a parent you can go to. And you certainly don’t want to go to Harvey’s partner and say this happened. You come to LA, you’re alone, you don’t have friends that you are being able to talk to and that’s what he takes advantage of, that isolated, vulnerable girl.”
So far over 60 women have come forward with accusations against Weinstein ranging from sexual misconduct to forcible rape. The #metoo movement grew out of his scandal and Heche said that “there is no bigger monster” in Tinseltown that Weinstein and “it’s great that’s he’s being taken down.” Weinstein’s rep tells HollywoodLife.com that “While Ms. Heche and Mr. Weinstein were friendly, he denies these claims as nothing more than an attempt to pile on to the current conversation. Mr. Weinstein denies Ms. Heche’s allegations and has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances.”
HollywoodLifers, do you think even more actresses will come forward with stories about Harvey Weinstein?