Lupita Nyong’o is the latest celebrity to speak out against Harvey Weinstein. In an op-ed for The New York Times, Nyong’o detailed multiple experiences with the producer while she was still a student at the Yale School of Drama, one in which she alleges he offered to help her career in exchange for sex.
The actor, best known for her Oscar-winning role in 12 Years a Slave, and who is featured in the upcoming Black Panther film, wrote that she “felt sick in the pit of [her] stomach” after numerous allegations against the producer revealed what she described as a “sinister pattern of behavior."
The article details multiple encounters, but one incident stands out in its severity. According to the piece, while dining at a Tribeca restaurant together, Weinstein told Nyong’o: "'Let’s cut to the chase. I have a private room upstairs where we can have the rest of our meal.'"
"I was stunned. I told him I preferred to eat in the restaurant," the actor wrote of the incident. "He told me not to be so naïve. If I wanted to be an actress, then I had to be willing to do this sort of thing. He said he had dated Famous Actress X and Y and look where that had gotten them."
After winning her Oscar in 2014, Nyong’o wrote that Harvey continued to pursue her and offered her numerous roles which she refused, explaining that "my survival plan was to avoid Harvey and men like him at all costs, and I did not know that I had allies in this.”
“I had shelved my experience with Harvey far in the recesses of my mind, joining in the conspiracy of silence that has allowed this predator to prowl for so many years," she wrote. "I had felt very much alone when these things happened, and I had blamed myself for a lot of it, quite like many of the other women who have shared their stories.”
Read the full account here.
If you are affected by workplace sexual harassment you can find resources here.