Mira Sorvino, one the dozens of women who have accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment, called the arrest of fallen movie mogul a “really good first step” but said she won’t feel fully gratified until Weinstein is behind bars.
“He’s raped many people that I love, so it’s not really a happy occasion,” the actress told TODAY in her first television interview since Weinstein’s arrest last month. “I think maybe there will be some celebration when he gets convicted and goes to jail. That’s when the process will be complete and when we’ll see justice really being served.”
Weinstein on Tuesday pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan courtroom to sexual assault charges related to an indictment against him. The plea followed his May 25 arrest on multiple rape and criminal sexual act charges related to allegations from two women.
Sorvino, who won an Oscar for her role in the 1995 film “Mighty Aphrodite,” has accused Weinstein of sexually harassing her while they worked together promoting the movie. She said she wondered whether Weinstein blacklisted her in the industry after she rejected his advances, because she experienced a career slump around the same time.
Last December, “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson confirmed her suspicions when he recounted how Weinstein warned him against casting Sorvino in his blockbuster franchise. Jackson said Weinstein called Sorvino a "nightmare” to avoid.
Sorvino said Jackson’s comments, which were rejected by a Weinstein spokesman, came as a shock.
“It was like a thunderbolt. It was kind of crazy. I was like, so it was really this malevolent hand that changed the course of my life and my professional horizons?” she said.
“At the end of the day, I am fine with everything, but to know that this was done to me, rather than it just being fate was kind of world rocking at the time.”
Although Sorvino opened up about Weinstein’s alleged advancements to The New Yorker in an article last October, she said she “told everyone that I knew” about his predatory behavior at the time.
“No one said, ‘Hey, this is sexual harassment you should go to the authorities. You have a case. You should go to authorities,’” said Sorvino.
She said she ultimately came to believe she wasn’t “important enough to make a big deal over.” But she had no idea how many other women were in similar positions.
“And if we had known about each other then … I think we would have found strength in numbers and we would have done something a lot sooner,” she said.
Sorvino is now working on the new television series “Condor,” and is the happily married mother of four children. She has been working with California lawmakers on anti-sexual harassment legislation and is considered a leader in the #MeToo and “Time’s Up” movements.
“If culture is going to change and less people will be sexually assaulted because of this movement and this outcry among millions across the world, then it was all worth it,” she said.