The award shows have come and gone, taking with them the Time's Up pins and black gowns, but Gwyneth Paltrow is helping to keep the #MeToo conversation alive. The actress, among the many who accused disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment in a bombshell report in The New York Times last year, shed more light Wednesday on the harrowing interaction — and the support she subsequently received from then-boyfriend Brad Pitt — while on The Howard Stern Show.
"We had one instance in a hotel room where [Weinstein] made a pass at me ... I was alone in a room with him," she recalled of an incident in the mid-'90s, when she was a then-unknown actress in her early twenties. "It was out of the blue. I was blindsided. He was fully clothed ... no bathrobe. I was shocked ... I told [Brad] right away, and I was very shaken by the whole thing. I had just signed up to do two movies with him ... I was afraid."
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Over the past year, dozens of women have come forward with allegations that Weinstein manipulated and threatened them to keep quiet about his predatory behaviour. In a pre-Times Up world — and, let's be honest, even now — it didn't take much for a powerful man to end a woman's career. Thankfully, Pitt, who was already an established star, didn't feel as intimidated, and confronted Weinstein while attending the opening of Hamlet. Things got heated, and Pitt got physical. "It was the equivalent of throwing [Weinstein] against the wall energetically," Paltrow said, later adding that Pitt said something along the lines of "If you ever make her feel uncomfortable again, I'll kill you."
The interaction left a lasting impression on the GOOP creator.
"It was so fantastic because what he did was he leveraged his fame and power to protect me at a time when I didn't have fame or power yet."
Men, take note; you, too, can use your privilege for good.