In an interview with the New York Times, the A-listers joined a growing group of women who accused the film exec of inappropriate sexual behavior. Speaking to the Times, Gwyneth alleged that when she was 22 years old and cast as the lead in Emma, Harvey invited her to his suite at the Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel for a work meeting, where he put his hands on her and proposed massages in the bedroom.
“I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified,” she recalled, adding that she was afraid of losing her role in the film. Gwyneth added that she told her then-boyfriend Brad Pitt about what had happened, and Brad confronted Harvey — warning him to never touch Gwyneth again. It’s worth noting that Brad’s representatives confirmed this story when approached by the Times.
Gwyneth added to the publication that Harvey called her afterward and yelled at her for telling people about the encounter. She noted: “I was expected to keep the secret,” which she did until 2017.
And the star has now reflected on her decision to be one of the first big names to speak out against Harvey in a new interview with the Hollywood Reporter, where she admitted that she was concerned about what could happen to her career by coming forward. Gwyneth referenced law professor Anita Hill, who testified in 1991 that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her when she worked with him at the Department of Education and the EEOC.
Her testimony was televised across America, and Anita faced intense public scrutiny, political attacks, and personal and public pressure to retract her allegations. Meanwhile, Clarence — who always denied any wrongdoing — was confirmed into the Supreme Court, and did not face any legal repercussions from Anita’s allegations.
When asked if she had been worried about speaking out against Harvey, Gwyneth confessed: “You have to remember that I grew up with Anita Hill as my model of what happens. A woman is incredibly brave, she does the right thing, and then she’s eviscerated, and the man goes on to have all the power. We saw that happen again and again, so I really thought it could be cataclysmic for me.”
“I was very reluctant to speak to a journalist,” she went on. “And throughout the investigation, I didn’t know if I’d go on the record. But during the course of my many conversations with Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey of The New York Times, I started to understand the depth, breadth and darkness of what had actually transpired, which I did not know.”
“And once I did, I thought: ‘I have no choice here, I have to say something,’” Gwyneth recalled. “Because I knew that me co-signing that would be a big deal. And I am so glad I did… But it was really scary.”
Thankfully, Gwyneth said that she ultimately doesn’t feel like she faced any negative repercussions for speaking out. She added: “I was just so angry when I learned everything. And I’m an Enneagram 1 [on the popular personality test], so when I perceive injustice, I go scorched-earth, and I will die on that sword.”
When the reporter then mentioned that Harvey kept a photo of Gwyneth taken on the night she won her Oscar on display in his office “like a prize,” Gwyneth spoke candidly about the reality of their relationship in the years between Brad confronting him and her coming forward with her experience.
After saying that it makes her “absolutely sick” that he had the photo up, Gwyneth confessed: “It’s also hard for me, because my relationship with Harvey, after that incident, was very complicated, but it was also a great working relationship.”
“We made incredible films together. We sort of got over that weird thing, and I was like: ‘OK, that’s behind us,’” she went on. “Harvey and I had lots of other fights about lots of other things, but I had this incredible creative run with him and his company. And so it’s complicated because I’m so proud of the work that we did, and it’s wild because he was so gifted at finding talent and understanding and nurturing it.”
And Gwyneth’s openness about such a complicated topic has won praise online, with one person saying of her quotes about Harvey: “survivors are allowed to have complicated feelings about their harassers. They don’t have to think in black and white. She didn’t say or imply she felt he became a better person. In fact, she said her picture being in his office for other victims to see makes her sick. The only thing she’s saying is complicated are her feelings about the work she made with him, which is a perfectly normal thing to feel.”
Harvey is currently in prison after he was sentenced to 23 years for rape and sexual assault in New York in 2020. In a separate case in Los Angeles, Harvey was sentenced to an additional 16 years after he was found guilty of rape and sexual assault in December 2022.
What do you make of Gwyneth’s comments? Let me know down below!