The actress best known for playing Cersei Lannister, Lena Headey, believes that avoiding sexual relations with disgraced former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein may have harmed her career for ten years. In a recent interview with the UK Sunday Times’ Culture Section, Headey expressed those remarks.
Headey first accused Weinstein of sexual harassment in October 2017 on her Twitter account, where she also wrote about two meetings, one of which she said left her in tears.
She is now talking openly about her encounters with Harvey Weinstein once more, which she believes have harmed her career as an actor. She stated, “I did start thinking, ‘F—, maybe because I didn’t shag him, that’s influenced a decade of my working life after he was discovered to be a slimeball, on a wider scale than me simply knowing it. “Because before those instances, I worked on two projects for Miramax, [Weinstein’s production firm], and after that, nothing.”
She had previously made such claims that she had been shunned after meeting Weinstein for the first time at a Venice Film Festival screening of The Brothers Grimm in 2005.
She recalled the incident when she said, “Harvey once invited me to stroll down to the river with him. I walked down with him and he stopped and made some suggestive comment, a gesture. “I didn’t take it seriously; I just joked about it. I distinctly recall thinking, “It has to be a joke.” I said something along the lines of, “Oh come on mate! As though I were kissing my father! Let’s get a drink and then return to the others. I never appeared in another Miramax movie.”
Years later, she ran across Weinstein again, and this time, she claimed, he tried again.
Since I had laughed and stated, “Never in a million years,” I had always thought that he would never try anything with me again. I thought he respected my boundaries, and perhaps he wanted to discuss potential employment.
He requested that we meet for breakfast. We ate breakfast and discussed movies and filmmaking. He probed me on the status of my romantic relationships. I changed the subject once more to something less private.
After using the restroom, he allegedly returned and proposed that they go up to his hotel room where he would give her a script.
The energy changed as we made our way to the elevator, she said. “As the elevator ascended, my entire body went into high alert. I turned to Harvey and said, “I’m not interested in anything other than work; please don’t believe I came in with you for any other reason; nothing is going to happen. I have no idea what drove me to speak up at that precise time, other than the overwhelming urge to warn everyone to stay away from me.