The Casino Royale Bond girl is latest star to accuse the Hollywood producer of making an inappropriate advance. Photo / Getty Images
The Casino Royale Bond girl is latest star to accuse the Hollywood producer of making an inappropriate advance. Photo / Getty Images
French actress Eva Green, a former "Bond girl", has revealed how she felt "shocked and disgusted" after an encounter with Harvey Weinstein culminated in her having to "push him off".
The 37-year-old is the latest star to accuse the Hollywood producer of making an inappropriate advance.
Green, who appeared in Casino Royale in 2006 with Daniel Craig, spoke out after her mother, Marlene Jobert, had earlier accused Weinstein of being a "horrible man" who targeted her daughter with promises of career success in return for sexual favours.
Jobert claimed the film mogul had threatened to ban other directors from choosing her daughter if she spurned his advances.
Green issued a statement about the alleged incident in Paris in 2010 or 2011, saying her decision to speak out was inspired by other women's bravery in coming forward.
"I wish to address comments made by my mother in a recent interview regarding Harvey Weinstein," she told Variety magazine.
"I met him for a business meeting in Paris at which he behaved inappropriately and I had to push him off. I got away without it going further, but the experience left me shocked and disgusted.
"I have not discussed this before because I wanted to maintain my privacy, but I understand it is important to do so as I hear about other women's experiences. Women are often condemned when they speak out and their personal reputations tarnished by association.
"I salute the great bravery of the women who have come forward. We should recognise that this sort of behaviour exists everywhere and is not unique to the entertainment industry. The exploitation of power is ubiquitous. This behaviour is unacceptable and needs to be eliminated."
She appeared in the film Sin City, in which Weinstein, 65, had been involved. Her allegation comes as British writer-director and actress Katie Hardie told the Sunday Telegraph how as a young actress working on films she had sex with older male actors and directors because the lines of sexuality became "blurred".
The actress said she came to rely on a male actor who chaperoned her to protect her.
British actress and playwright Meera Syal also spoke to the Sunday Telegraph, claiming a male director became "touchy feely" when she was applying for a part in a pantomime in the 1980s.
Meanwhile, one of Britain's top female directors is calling for an independent review into the way women are treated in the male-dominated British film industry.
Susanna White, who directed television adaptations of Jane Eyre and Bleak House, said the industry needed to address as a matter of urgency the "gross gender imbalance".
Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph while filming in Italy, the Bafta award-winning director behind John le Carre's Our Kind of Traitor and Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang said the Weinstein scandal should serve as a "wake-up call" to an industry where women rarely become powerful.
"This is a systemic failure within a male-dominated industry where women are not taken seriously and rarely promoted to positions of power," she said.
White, 57, pointed to research that shows that despite women making up half of all students at film school they invariably do not end up as directors. A Directors UK report, published last year, revealed that British films are six times more likely to be directed by a man than a woman.
"If there were more women in positions of power in the film industry these cases of sexual harassment would be few and far between," White said.
"Actors are freelance so there is no safeguarding system, such as a human resources department, that they can turn to if they feel they have suffered sexual harassment.
"They should be able to turn to their agents, who in turn should be able to go to the producers, then the directors and so on. They should not be afraid to speak out and their concerns should be taken seriously and not brushed off as casting-couch situations."
Fashion icon Twiggy told the Cheltenham Literature Festival she was grateful to her father for insisting she was always accompanied by a protective adult while working as a model.
"I didn't have any first-hand experience on that level of being hit on, which I know went on with the models and I know still goes on," she said.
A number of actresses are coming forward, claiming Weinstein acted indecently towards them. Photo / AP
Bob Weinstein, 62, last night delivered an outspoken and emotional attack on his brother, claiming he too had suffered his abuse, both verbal and at one time physical.
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, he insisted that while he was unaware of "the type of predator" his brother was, he would now write to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences calling for him to be kicked out.
He said: "I find myself in a waking nightmare. My brother has caused unconscionable suffering. As a father of three girls I say this with every bone in my body. I am heartbroken for the women that he has harmed.
"It's hard to describe how I feel that he took out the emptiness inside of him in so many sick and depraved ways. It's a sickness but not a sickness that is excusable. It's a sickness that's inexcusable. And I, as a brother, understood and was aware as a family member that my brother needed help and that something was wrong."
He revealed that his family had urged Weinstein to get help.
"I was also the object of a lot of his verbal abuse and at one time physical abuse," he continued. "And I am not looking for one bit of sympathy from anyone. I do not put myself in the category at all of those women that he hurt.
"But it's a complicated situation when it's your brother doing the abusing to you as well. I saw it and I asked him to get help for many years. And that's the truth. He avoided getting the help. We begged him."
