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Cara Delevingne Says Harvey Weinstein Tried To Force Himself On Her
Cara Delevingne attends the signing of her debut Young Adult novel 'Mirror, Mirror' at Waterstones Piccadilly on October 4, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images)
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Actress and model Cara Delevingne is the latest in an avalanche of women to come forward with stories of sexual harassment at the hands of Harvey Weinstein. The floodgates of allegations against the disgraced mega-producer have slowly squeaked open in recent days, following a bombshell New York Times story last Thursday that exposed "decades of sexual harassment accusations" against Weinstein. On Tuesday, actresses including Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Heather Graham and Asia Argento spoke out about allegedly having been sexually harassed or assaulted by Weinstein, who was fired Sunday by the production company he co-founded.
In a statement posted to Instagram, Delevingne alleged that Weinstein tried to force himself on her after a meeting about a project, and tried to pressure her into kissing another woman while he watched. The incident allegedly occurred after Delevingne had gone to a meeting with Weinstein and a director about an upcoming film in the lobby of a hotel. She said she felt "very powerless and scared" and that he allegedly tried to kiss her on the lips as she tried to leave the hotel room. Delevingne has appeared in two Weinstein Company movies, Paper Towns (2015) and Tulip Fever (2017).
The alleged incident occurred "a year or two" after Weinstein had allegedly called Delevingne unprompted and questioned her about her sexual history. "When I first started to work as an actress, I was working on a film and I received a call from Harvey Weinstein asking if I had slept with any of the women I was seen out with in the media," Delevingne wrote in the Instagram post. "It was a very odd and uncomfortable call.... I answered none of his questions and hurried off the phone but before I hung up, he said to me that If I was gay or decided to be with a woman especially in public that I'd never get the role of a straight woman or make it as an actress in Hollywood."
"A year or two later, I went to a meeting with him in the lobby of a hotel with a director about an upcoming film," she continued. Here is the rest of her post in full:
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The director left the meeting and Harvey asked me to stay and chat with him. As soon as we were alone he began to brag about all the actresses he had slept with and how he had made their careers and spoke about other inappropriate things of a sexual nature. He then invited me to his room. I quickly declined and asked his assistant if my car was outside. She said it wasn't and wouldn't be for a bit and I should go to his room. At that moment I felt very powerless and scared but didn't want to act that way hoping that I was wrong about the situation. When I arrived I was relieved to find another woman in his room and thought immediately I was safe. He asked us to kiss and she began some sort of advances upon his direction. I swiftly got up and asked him if he knew that I could sing. And I began to sing....i thought it would make the situation better....more professional....like an audition....I was so nervous. After singing I said again that I had to leave. He walked me to the door and stood in front of it and tried to kiss me on the lips. I stopped him and managed to get out of the room. I still got the part for the film and always thought that he gave it to me because of what happened. Since then I felt awful that I did the movie. I felt like I didn't deserve the part. I was so hesitant about speaking out....I didn't want to hurt his family. I felt guilty as if I did something wrong. I was also terrified that this sort of thing had happened to so many women I know but no one had said anything because of fear.
"I want women and girls to know that being harassed or abused or raped is NEVER their fault and not talking about it will always cause more damage than speaking the truth," Delevingne said in a second Instagram post that was posted shortly after the first.
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