Despite being accused of sexually assaulting or sexually harassing over 80 women, Harvey Weinstein says he helped paved the way for female filmmakers.
Weinstein spoke with The New York Post and proclaimed, he feels like the forgotten man.
The alleged rapist bragged to The Post, “I made more movies directed by women and about women than any filmmaker, and I’m talking about 30 years ago. I’m not talking about now when it’s vogue. I did it first! I pioneered it!”
He added, “It all got eviscerated because of what happened.”
Weinstein complained that, “My work has been forgotten.”
The Post is the first outlet to interview him in over year; it was reportedly to prove he has not been exaggerating about his recent car-crash ailments, sustained in an Aug. 17 car accident. The Post spoke to him as he was recovering from a three-hour spinal surgery to remove three bone plates that are compressing his vertebrae.
Weinstein did the interview because he wanted to dispel the myths that it was minor operation after he was seen heavily relying on a walker at a court appearance last week.
During the interview, he refused to discuss the allegations against him.
He was accused of raping a longtime lover in 2013, who has not been named. He is also forcibly performed oral sex on production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006. He is charged with five counts of predatory sexual assault, criminal sex act, and rape in the cases, the Post reports.
If convicted, he could face life in prison.
He has denied any wrongdoings.
It was reported that he and his bankrupt film studio The Weinstein Company allegedly reached a $25 million civil settlement with more than 30 accusers.
Gwyneth Paltrow is one of the women who has alleged harassment but is not part of the settlement. Paltrow on an Oscar for Miramax’s 1999 “Shakespeare in Love.” She exclaimed that he tried to lure her into his hotel room under the guise of a “business meeting’ and then tried to give her a massage. This occurred when Paltrow was 22, in 1994.
“Gwyneth Paltrow in 2003 got $10 million to make a movie called ‘View from the Top’,” Weinstein claimed.
He bragged that, “She was the highest-paid female actor in an independent film. Higher-paid than all the men.”
He also went on to boast about his charity work. He told the journalist for The Post about social justice films and agendas that he had produced.
He also talked about other ways he helped give back.
The Post reports that each time he was asked a question he didn’t like, he threatened to terminate the sit-down.
When asked if he believed that the “good deeds” he has self-reportedly done outweighed the enormity of alleged evidence of him as a relentless sexual preditor, he snapped and told the writer that he would “move on.”
Weinstein will be going on trial for rape Jan. 6 in Manhattan Supreme Court.
