A former assistant to Harvey Weinstein (pictured) says he never knew his boss was harassing or assaulting women
One of Harvey Weinstein’s former assistants is speaking out – saying he was just as shocked as everyone else to hear his ex-boss had been accused of sexual harassment and even rape.
The former assistant, who asked not to be identified, spoke with CBS This Morning on Thursday.
He said he went to work for the former Weinstein Co. co-chairman because he wanted to work as a movie producer and knew before he got the job that the media titan had a reputation for being a ‘bully’.
The former assistant, who worked for Weinstein for more than a decade, confirmed that Harvey took many a closed-door meeting with actresses in hotel rooms – and suspected that the producer was cheating on his wife with the women he met with.
But he insists that he never knew Weinstein was harassing or assaulting women.
The former assistant says these meetings were organized entirely by Weinstein himself and ‘kept apart very meticulously’ from the rest of the staff, which included his three to four assistants.
‘We would be in the room with him, doing normal business, having meetings with filmmakers and actors, and writers and directors and other producers, and executives.
‘And then we would be told at 2 o’clock so-and-so was coming to the room. Make yourself scarce. And we wouldn’t even be there, we would be gone. And then he would call us an hour or two later, and say, “Ok, come back up.” And that was it,’ the former assistant says.
He says nothing he saw would have ever made him think women were being hurt.
It was no secret that he had scores of women, all around the globe.
‘I never, I never walked into a situation that I felt like somebody had just been victimized in a room that I was walking into. Or, you know, I never saw somebody fighting with him or running away in tears,’ he said.
Among the workplace, he says they gossiped about what might be happening, but never considered Weinstein might be an abuser.
‘I think if you were to ask anybody – yeah, we all knew that he was a philanderer, cheating on his, his wife. Which was something that we all felt terrible about. But was sadly part of the job,’ the former assistant said.
‘It was no secret that he had scores of women, all around the globe,’ the former assistant added.
In an article about the allegations, the New Yorker reported how assistants would act as ‘honey pots’ to make actresses feel comfortable in meetings with Weinstien. Then they would disappear and the producer would pounce.
But the former assistant says he was never used in that way, at least not to his knowledge.
‘I was never part of those meetings. I don’t know any colleagues or executives that were in the room, ever, for those meetings. I never witnessed him or saw him doing anything salacious or untoward to a female colleague, as has been reported. Maybe it’s youthful naiveté, being 23, 24 at the time,’ he said.
When asked how he reacted when he read the news last week, the former assistant described his emotions as ‘sick,’ ‘angry,’ and ‘disgusted’.
I never witnessed him or saw him doing anything salacious or untoward to a female colleague, as has been reported. Maybe it’s youthful naiveté, being 23, 24 at the time.
He said he felt like he and the other assistants had been ‘victimized in our own right’ because they had been by Weinstein as ‘tools’ to get his way.
‘It seems almost like the company was structured from the top to bottom to service whatever it was he was doing,’ he said.
The former assistant added that he’s ‘very proud and happy that these women are coming forward now’.
‘On behalf of everybody that ever had the opportunity to be employed by him and his company, we apologize to you. And thank you for coming forward. And stopping it so that it never happens again,’ he said.