Game of Thrones star Lena Headey has recounted two disturbing incidents involving disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in a series of tweets.
The British actress, who plays Cersei Lannister in the HBO fantasy drama, has become the latest high-profile star to accuse Weinstein of harassment.
On Twitter, Headey shared accounts of two experiences with Weinstein in the past, one at the Venice Film Festival in 2005 when she was promoting The Brothers Grimm and the second years later at a Los Angeles hotel.
She wrote of meeting Weinstein for the first time at the festival: "At one point Harvey asked me to take a walk down to the water, I walked down with him and he stopped and made some suggestive comment, a gesture, I just laughed it off, I was genuinely shocked.
"I remember thinking, it’s got to be a joke. I said something like.. ‘oh come on mate ?!?? It’d be like kissing my dad !! let’s go get a drink, get back to the others."
The actress said that following this incident where she rebuffed his advances she didn't appear in another Miramax film.
Headey said that years later Weinstein asked to meet her for breakfast. She presumed it that it was a professional meeting to talk about potential work as she had "laughed and said never in a million years" to his previous overtures.
However, during the meeting Weinstein went on to question her about her love life and then asked her to come to his hotel room, ostensibly to give her a script.
Headey wrote: "We walked to the lift and the energy shifted, my whole body went into high alert, the lift was going up and I said to Harvey, I’m not interested in anything other than work, please don’t think I got in here with you for any other reason, nothing is going to happen I said. I don’t know what possessed me to speak out at that moment, only that I had such a strong sense of don’t come near me.
"He was silent after I spoke, furious. We got out of the lift and walked to his room. His hand was on my back, he was marching me forward, not a word. I felt completely powerless, he tried his key card and it didn’t work, then he got really angry. He walked me back to the lift, through the hotel to the valet, by grabbing and holding tightly to the back of my arm, he paid for my car and whispered in my ear 'Don’t tell anyone about this, not your manager, not your agent.'
"I got into my car and I cried", Headey's statement concluded.
— lena headey (@IAMLenaHeadey) October 17, 2017
Weinstein has been accused of sexual harassment by a number of high-profile actresses in the film industry, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Cara Delevingne and Rose McGowan.
The New York Times first broke the story detailing decades of alleged sexual abuse at the hands of the Hollywood producer, which was followed by a New Yorker article which contained three additional rape allegations, which Weinstein "unequivocally" denies.
The scandal surrounding Weinstein has prompted several women in Hollywood to speak out about sexual harassment, including Oscar-winner Reese Witherspoon who says she was assaulted by a director at the age of 16.
Weinstein has resigned from the board of The Weinstein Company, over a week after the movie mogul was fired from his position at the firm.
Meanwhile, Harvey Weinstein's brother Bob, with whom he co-founded The Weinstein Company in 2005, was also accused of sexual harassment on Tuesday (October 17).
Amanda Segel, an executive producer and showrunner on the TV series The Mist, claims that Bob Weinstein repeatedly harassed her over the course of several months in 2016 during production on the show. Segel said Bob harassed her for about three months until her lawyer informed executives at The Weinstein Company that she would leave the show if he didn't stop contacting her about personal matters.
Speaking to Variety, Segel said: "'No' should be enough. After 'no', anybody who has asked you out should just move on. Bob kept referring to me that he wanted to have a friendship. He didn’t want a friendship. He wanted more than that. My hope is that 'no' is enough from now on."
A representative for Bob denied the allegations being made by Segel, sayng: "Bob Weinstein had dinner with Ms. Segel in LA in June 2016. He denies any claims that he behaved inappropriately at or after the dinner. It is most unfortunate that any such claim has been made."
