Kate Beckinsale Reveals Harvey Weinstein Verbal Abuse That Left Her In Tears

After months of deliberation and worry, on Wednesday March 11 as it was announced that Harvey Weinstein had received a 23-year prison sentence after being found guilty of two charges of predatory sexual assault. With allegations against Weinstein taking the #MeToo movement into the mainstream in 2017, the film producer’s sentencing was publicly welcomed by many, including Kate Beckinsale, who opened up about a situation where Weinstein’s verbal abuse left her in tears.

The British actor worked with Weinstein on 2001 romantic comedy Serendipity, which she starred in opposite John Cusack. The film was distributed by Weinstein’s company Miramax Films, but in an Instagram post shared on Wednesday, March 11, Beckinsale alleged that she had been bullied and sexually harassed while working with him on the project.

Sharing a picture of herself in a white suit at the New York premiere, Beckinsale explained how the cast had been reluctant to attend the event on grounds that it was “insensitive, tone deaf [and] disrespectful” in the month after 9/11, but wrote that Weinstein insisted they went through with it.

“The next morning Harvey called me and asked if I would like to bring my less than two year old daughter to his house for a playdate with his similar aged daughter,” Beckinsale wrote, “I said ok."

The actor continued: “I turned up and he immediately called for his nanny to take the babies to another room to play. I went to go with them and he said, ‘No, you wait here.’ The minute the door closed he started screaming, ‘You stupid f***ing c***, you ruined my premiere.’”

She continued: “He said, ‘If I am throwing a red carpet you get in a tight dress, you shake your a**... you do not go down it looking like a f***ing lesbian. It’s my fucking premiere and if I want p***y on the red carpet that’s what I get.’”

Suggesting that this wasn’t her only abusive altercation with Weinstein, Beckinsale alleges that she was punished for saying no to the producer “for years, insidiously and seemingly irreversibly.”

Celebrating the news of Weinstein’s sentencing, she congratulated one of his most notable accusers, actor Rose McGowan. The Scream star was one of the Silence Breakers, the group of 24 famous women who united to accuse the film producer of sexual harassment and assault.

Commemorating the monumental sentencing, the group wrote: “Harvey Weinstein's legacy will always be that he's a convicted rapist. He's going to jail — but no amount of jail time will repair the lives he ruined, the careers he destroyed, or the damage he has caused. The New York trial has ended, but the Silence Breakers will persist in our crusade for cultural change, justice, and to have our voices heard."