Juliette Binoche says Weinstein had a beast inside him

French actress Juliette Binoche says she was never a victim of Harvey Weinstein because she had ‘learned early to be responsible’ as she revealed she was assaulted by another producer when she was 18.

The Le Chocolat star said that she was always cautious around Weinstein as she ‘knew very well what beast there was in him.’

‘When I worked with Harvey Weinstein, I felt that I knew who I had in front of me’, she told Le Monde in an interview in French.

‘The kind of guy I will never go to have fun with,’ she added. ‘I had lunch with him once in one-on-one in his suite, I did not feel any danger, but I did not understand why he wanted to see me,’ she said. 

French actress Juliette Binoche (with Harvey Weinstein at the Festival of American Film in Deauville, France in 1998) says she was never a victim of Harvey Weinstein because she had ‘learned early to be responsible’ and ‘knew very well what beast there was in him’

She added that she didn’t feel in danger because she knew how to deal with someone like that.

‘I was already armed,’ she explained. ‘The only time I heard a verbal sexual insinuation from him I did not take seriously, I responded immediately with a backhand ball out of bounds.’

Binoche said she’d been shocked by the accusations of rape against Weinstein but ‘there may be actresses who are more easily influenced and less prepared for situations with people of power, especially when you start’.

‘In the face of Harvey’s corpulence, in the face of his energy, his voice, his speed, in the face of the words he uses, his beliefs, in approaching such a power, one must know where one puts one’s feet and awaken his intelligence not to be trapped,’ she said, adding that being an actress was a dangerous profession. 

Binoche with Weinstein a the Festival of American Film in Deauville, France in 1998

Binoche (in Monaco last year, right) said she quickly realized what kind of man the producer was

Binoche (with Weinstein a the Festival of American Film in Deauville, France in 1998, left and in Monaco last year, right) said she quickly realized what kind of man the producer was

She added that she’d never been manipulated by Weinstein because ‘I learned early to be responsible’.

Binoche revealed she had been ‘sexually touched’ from the age of seven, and had been sexually assaulted by a movie director aged 18 and a producer a few years later. 

She said: ‘I think I soon had a sense of danger in the circumstances that I was able to meet from childhood or when I started as an actress. 

At 18, a director, to tell me about a new project, invited me to dinner. At the end of the meal, he jumped on me to kiss me. I pushed him away immediately, saying, ‘But I’m in love, I have a lover! 

‘Another time at 21, I was invited to a producer one hour before a dinner organized for the end of a shoot, he jumped on me savagely, I had to push him likewise. Instinctively, I wanted to be respected in my feelings and in my body.’

Those ‘lessons’ had stayed with her, both for her career and when she worked with Weinstein on films like The English Patient, which earned her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress and or Le Chocolat in 2001 which won her a nomination for the Oscar Best actress in 2001.

Binoche also revealed she had been 'sexually touched' from the age of seven, and had been sexually assaulted by a movie director aged 18 and a producer a few years later

Binoche also revealed she had been ‘sexually touched’ from the age of seven, and had been sexually assaulted by a movie director aged 18 and a producer a few years later

‘I learned… to rebel against male impunity. The rage was not far. But sometimes, unfortunately, everyone does not have this repartee, and some situations can become much more destructive.’

Binoche said she even found Weinstein ‘oddly endearing’ but knew there was a ‘beast’ inside him.

She told La Monde that she had even missed out on some movie roles because she refused to respond to certain powerful movie figure’s sexual advances.

‘I did not respond to the knee blows under the table, because I did not call the cell number that was given to me given after repeating. I missed some movies like that,’ she said.

Three's company: Perkins said Weinstein tried to give her a massage in his underwear (Weinstein, Paltrow and Clinton two months after the settlement)

Three’s company: Perkins said Weinstein tried to give her a massage in his underwear (Weinstein, Paltrow and Clinton two months after the settlement)

The 53-year-old, a mother-of-two whose partner is American actor and musician Patrick Muldoon, warned that movie producers and directors in cinema wielded great power which she compared to that of a black hole, but warned ‘be careful not to be caught!’

Weinstein, who is currently said to be in rehab, has been accused by more than 60 women of sexual harassment and assault.

Gwyneth Paltrow is one of a long list of A listers, which also includes Angelina Jolie and Heather Graham, who said she was harassed by Weinstein, once the most powerful producer in Hollywood.

In a New York Times expose, she said he had invited her to his hotel room, in a fax from the Creative Artists Agency. Once she arrived at the hotel, he began to massage her and then asked her to join him in the bedroom.

‘I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified,’ said Paltrow, who rejected his advance and drove away devastated, thinking: ‘I thought you were my Uncle Harvey.’ 

She told then-boyfriend Brad Pitt about the incident she said, who then confronted Weinstein. 

‘Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein. Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances,’ said a spokesperson for Weinstein. 

‘Mr. Weinstein obviously can’t speak to anonymous allegations, but with respect to any women who have made allegations on the record, Mr. Weinstein believes that all of these relationships were consensual. 

‘Mr. Weinstein has begun counseling, has listened to the community and is pursuing a better path. Mr. Weinstein is hoping that, if he makes enough progress, he will be given a second chance.’   

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk