Julianna Margulies says that she was sexually harassed by Harvey Weinstein – and believes she was almost raped at gunpoint by former action hero Steven Seagal.
The Good Wife star, 51, told SiriusXM’s Jenny Hutt that Weinstein had attempted to lure her into his hotel room, and that later Seagal did the same thing – while brandishing a gun.
‘And I got out of there unscathed,’ she said of her encounter with Seagal. ‘I never was raped. And I never was harmed. And I don’t know how I got out of that hotel room … I sorta screamed my way out.’
Julianna Margulies, star of The Good Wife, said on Friday that she had two nasty encounters – with a gun-toting Steven Seagal in 1989 and a bathrobe-clad Harvey Weinstein in 1994
Margulies appeared on Just Jenny on Friday morning to speak out about her alleged harassers.
She said that in 1989, when she ‘was 23, a casting director, a woman, said, “…Steven Seagal wants to go over the scene with you in his hotel room at 10 o’clock at night.”‘
Margulies told the woman that she didn’t have the money for a taxi, and was afraid to take the subway at night, but was told: ‘Don’t worry we’ll reimburse you. And I’m here, a woman.’
The actress continued: ‘And I got to the hotel at 10:40, and she wasn’t there. And he was. Alone. And he made sure that I saw his gun.’
She added that, ‘It always starts with, “I’m a healer, I want to massage you” and all. I sorta screamed my way out.’
It’s unclear whether she was talking about Seagal, who is now 65, with the remarks about massages.
Margulies said she was shaken after that encounter, and so was wary when she was invited to meet with Weinstein, who is also now 65, in 1996, when she was in her third season of ER.
The movie was being touted as Oscar bait and was likely to get her a Screen Actor’s Guild card, she said – and she was told that it was just down to her and another actress.
She was told that she would ‘absolutely’ get a screen test if she met with Weinstein, she said, and again was promised that the woman accompanying her would be in the room at The Peninsula hotel with them.
Margulies said that the woman then tried to wriggle out of joining her after she was driven there, but when Margulies refused to go up without an escort, she gave in.
‘She knocked on the door, and she was standing behind me,’ Margulies recalled. ‘And he opened the door, in a bathrobe.
‘I could see that there were candles lit in the room, and there was a dinner for two. And I saw him stare at her, daggers.
‘And so, I turned to see what she had done to deserve that, and I caught her in a shrug – like, “What could I do?” And he looked at me, furious, and he took the door and he said, “Just wanted to say good audition.” And he slammed the door.
‘And of course I didn’t get the part…’
Margulies added that as a successful TV actress with was doing well thanks to ER, she had the luxury of being able to step away.
But ‘What’s a sixteen-year-old actress supposed to do?’ she asked.