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Lupita Nyong'o Has Come Forward With Her Own Story of Being Harassed by Harvey Weinstein

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In a powerful op-ed she wrote for The New York Times earlier this week, Lupita Nyong'o added her own name to the list of over a dozen actresses that have come forward with allegations of sexual assault and harassment against producer Harvey Weinstein.

The Academy Award-winning actress opened the emotional piece explaining that she, like many others that have since come forward, including Cara Delevigne, Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow, had never spoken up about what had happened to her because she felt alone and confused, blaming herself for much of what had happened. (A common response by many survivors of sexual assault, unfortunately.)

"But now that this is being discussed openly, I have not been able to avoid the memories resurfacing," Nyong'o writes. "I have felt sick in the pit of my stomach. I have felt such a flare of rage that the experience I recount below was not a unique incident with me, but rather part of a sinister pattern of behavior."

 

A post shared by Lupita Nyong'o (@lupitanyongo) on

Throughout the piece, Nyong'o describes multiple incidents, beginning when she was still just a student at Yale's drama school, in which Weinstein intimidated and coerced her — and what she describes follows many of the same horrifying patterns previously laid out by other actresses.

In one incident, Nyong'o says Weinstein invited her to a private screening of another studio's film at his home, where he eventually coerced her into his bedroom.

"Harvey led me into a bedroom — his bedroom — and announced that he wanted to give me a massage," Nyong'o says. "I thought he was joking at first. He was not. For the first time since I met him, I felt unsafe. I panicked a little and thought quickly to offer to give him one instead: It would allow me to be in control physically, to know exactly where his hands were at all times... Before long he said he wanted to take off his pants. I told him not to do that and informed him that it would make me extremely uncomfortable. He got up anyway to do so and I headed for the door, saying that I was not at all comfortable with that."

Following that incident, Nyong'o writes that she made the decision to stop accepting any of Weinstein's invitations to spaces in which they could potentially be alone — but things still didn't stop. Weinstein later invited her to a dinner, and Nyong'o was surprised to arrive to find out it would just be the two of them at the restaurant.

"Before the starters arrived, he announced: 'Let’s cut to the chase. I have a private room upstairs where we can have the rest of our meal.' I was stunned," Nyong'o remembers in her account. "I told him I preferred to eat in the restaurant. 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."

Apparently her response angered the producer so much that he told her to leave before they'd eaten, telling her before she got into a cab, "I don’t know about your career, but you’ll be fine."

The New York Police Department has launched two sex crime investigations into Weinstein, who was removed from the Weinstein Company two weeks ago when the first allegations against him were made public in a New York Times story.


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