UK Edition
Eva Green tells of 'shock and disgust' after having to 'push off' Harvey Weinstein
Eva Green, the French actress who appeared in the James Bond film Casino Royale, has revealed how she felt “shocked and disgusted” after an encounter with movie mogul Harvey Weinstein culminated in her having to “push him off”.
Responding to her mother’s claim that the Hollywood producer had then threatened to destroy her career, the actress claimed she had been inspired to speak out because of the bravery of other women in coming forward.
Green issued a statement to Variety about the alleged incident in Paris in 2010 or 2011.
She was responding to a radio interview her mother, Jarlene Jobert, gave in which she accused Weinstein of being a “horrible man” who targeted the actress with promises of career success in return for sexual favours. She claimed he had threatened to ban other directors from choosing her daughter if she spurned his advances.
Ms Green, 37, said: “I wish to address comments made by my mother in a recent interview regarding Harvey Weinstein.
“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 had appeared in the film Sin City, which Weinstein, 65, had been involved.
Meanwhile one of Britain’s top female directors is calling for an independent review into the way women are treated in the male dominated UK film industry.
Susanna White, who directed TV adaptations of Jane Eyre and Bleak House, said the film industry needs to address as a matter of urgency the “gross gender imbalance”.
Speaking to The Telegraph while filming in Italy, Ms White, a 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 that 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.
Ms 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.
Directors UK found that between 2005 and 2014, just 13.6 per cent of British films were directed by women, and 14.6 per cent had a female screenwriter, as a result of an "unconscious, systemic bias".
Their report, published last year, revealed how UK 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. If there were more female directors this kind of behaviour would not be happening,” Ms White continued.
“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.”