Ashley Judd told Good Morning America she feels sorry for Harvey Weinstein. Photo / AP
Actress Ashley Judd says she escaped Harvey Weinstein's sexual advances by making a deal.
She was a rising young actress two decades ago who had arrived at the hotel suite of this powerful film mogul for what she thought would be a business meeting.
It wasn't, she says. Weinstein first offered to give her a massage, then, when she demurred, asked her to give him one.
She says she refused to sit down and surveyed the floor plan of the suite to plot her escape.
"I thought 'no' meant no," she says. "I fought with this volley of no's."
Then she made a "deal." She says she agreed to submit to him, but only "when I win an Oscar in one of your movies - OK?"
"When you get NOMINATED," Weinstein counter-offered.
"And I said, 'No. When I WIN an Oscar.' And then I just fled."
Appearing on ABC's Good Morning America yesterday, Judd said she remains of two minds about how she handled the shocking situation.
"Am I proud of that? The part that shames myself says, 'No.' The part of me that understands the way shame works says, 'That was absolutely brilliant. Good job, kid, you got out of there. Well done!'"
Judd was among the first of what has become dozens of women alleging sexual harassment or assault by Weinstein, who has been fired from the company he co-founded with his brother and is now under criminal investigation for rape in London, New York and Los Angeles.
Judd says a couple of years after the hotel encounter she was seated across from Weinstein at a dinner. She says he brought up "that little agreement we made," and claimed he was "looking around for the material".
Then he looked at her and said, "You know, Ashley, I'm going to let you out of that little agreement that we made."
Judd says by then "I had come into my own, I had come into my power, I had found my voice. And I said, 'You do that, Harvey. You DO that.'
"And he has spat my name at me ever since."
Judd went on to star in two movies with his studio, but she doesn't remember him being on set.
Sawyer asked Judd what she would say if the two were to meet now. She'll never forgive what he did to so many, she said, and she believes he belongs in jail if he did, in fact, rape women. But she had a surprisingly forgiving message.
"What I would say to Harvey is, 'I love you and I understand that you are sick and suffering, and there is help for a guy like you, too, and it's entirely up to you to get that help,' " she said.
When Sawyer expressed shock at Judd's response, the actress said, "That's just who I am. Frankly it's just an easier way to roll through the world than the alternative."
Judd is hopeful that this story will finally change abuses of power in Hollywood and beyond.
"This is the moment," she said. "And if we want it to be the moment, it will for sure be the moment."
- AP
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