Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Annabella Sciorra Confronts Weinstein From the Witness Stand
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 5 years ago on
January 23, 2020

Share

NEW YORK — “Sopranos” actress Annabella Sciorra confronted Harvey Weinstein from the witness stand Thursday, telling a jury in a quivering voice that the Hollywood studio boss barged into her apartment in the mid-1990s, overpowered her and raped her as she tried to fight him off by kicking and punching him.

She said that a month later, she ran into him and confronted him about what happened, and he replied: “That’s what all the nice Catholic girls say.”
She said that a month later, she ran into him and confronted him about what happened, and he replied: “That’s what all the nice Catholic girls say.”
Then, she told the jury, the burly Weinstein leaned toward her and added menacingly: “This remains between you and I.”
“I thought he was going to hit me right there,” Sciorra testified.
The 59-year-old actress became the first of Weinstein’s accusers to testify at his trial, where the movie mogul whose downfall gave rise to the #MeToo movement is charged with forcibly performing oral sex on former “Project Runway” production assistant Mimi Haleyi in his New York apartment in 2006 and raping an aspiring actress in a hotel room here in 2013.
Weinstein is not charged with attacking Sciorra, whose accusations date too far back to be prosecuted. Instead, she took stand as one of four additional accusers prosecutors intend to put on the stand to show that the powerful Hollywood producer had a pattern of preying on women. Weinstein, 67,. could get life in prison if convicted.
The executive behind such Oscar-winning movies as “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love” has insisted any sexual encounters were consensual.
Photo of Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein, left, leaves the courtroom with his attorneys Arthur Aidala, and Donna Rotunno at the end of the first day of his trial on rape and sexual assault charges, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

‘I Didn’t Even Know What Was Happening’

Recounting an accusation she said she kept largely secret for decades, Sciorra testified that after raping her, Weinstein went on to try to perform oral sex on her, saying, “This is for you,” as her body “shut down.”
“It was just so disgusting,” she said. She said she started to shake: “I didn’t even know what was happening. It was like a seizure or something.”
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they have been victims of sexual assault, unless they come forward publicly.
Weinstein lawyer Damon Cheronis has questioned the validity of Sciorra’s account, saying she once told a friend that she “did a crazy thing and had sex with Harvey Weinstein” and that she had a consensual encounter with him.
“She didn’t describe it as rape because it wasn’t,” Cheronis said in his opening statement Wednesday.
Sciorra drew acclaim for her part in Spike Lee’s 1991 movie “Jungle Fever” and her role as a pregnant woman molested by her doctor in 1992’s “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” the next year. She later appeared on “The Sopranos.”
She said she met Weinstein at an industry event in Los Angeles in 1990 or 1991, and he told her he would be interested in any good scripts she came across. She later suggested one — the 1993 romantic comedy “The Night We Never Met” — and agreed to star in it after he leaned on her, though she was burned out from a series of shoots, she said.

Sciorra Started to Cut Herself and Feel She Didn’t Want to Leave Her House

Weinstein responded with a pair of care packages, including a bottle of Valium and a box of chocolate penises.
“I thought it was disgusting and inappropriate,” she said.

“I thought he was an OK guy. I felt confused. I felt like I wished I never opened the door.” Annabella Sciorra
She said the rape happened in late 1993 or early 1994, after Weinstein dropped her office from a movie-business dinner and then appeared, uninvited, at her door a few minutes later.
Sciorra said afterward, she started to cut herself and feel she didn’t want to leave her house. At the same time, she said, she didn’t call police and struggled with understanding that what happened to her was a crime.
“I thought he was an OK guy. I felt confused. I felt like I wished I never opened the door,” she said. She said she told no one at first, not even her brothers.
“I wanted to pretend it never happened …. I wanted to get back to my life,” she told the jury. She would later tell a few people close to her but didn’t come forward publicly until 2017.
In the meantime, she said, had another frightening encounter with Weinstein in 1997 at the Cannes Film Festival, where he turned up early one morning at her hotel room door “in his underwear with a bottle of baby oil in one hand and a videotape in the other.”
“I got very scared,” backed away and pushed all the direct dial buttons on the phone to try to summon help, she testified. She said Weinstein eventually left.

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Life-Threatening Meals: Restaurants Would Identify Food Allergens for Diners Under This Proposed Law

DON'T MISS

Iran Threatens to Strike US Bases in Region if Military Conflict Arises

DON'T MISS

Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades

DON'T MISS

Fresno Measure C Transportation Tax Talks Continue Amid Renewal Uncertainty

DON'T MISS

Judge Bars Trump Administration From Detaining Mahmoud Khalil

DON'T MISS

Is a Waxed Apple ‘Ultra-Processed?’ CA Bill Could Trigger a Lawsuit Barrage

DON'T MISS

Edmunds: These Five Vehicles Are Hidden Automotive Gems

DON'T MISS

GM to Invest $4 Billion to Shift Some Production From Mexico to the US

DON'T MISS

How Your Air Conditioner Can Help the Power Grid, Rather Than Overloading It

DON'T MISS

Hundreds of Laid-off CDC Employees Are Being Reinstated

UP NEXT

Brian Wilson, Summer’s Poet Laureate of the Beach Boys, Dies at 82

UP NEXT

World’s Most Popular TikTok Star Khaby Lame Leaves the US After Being Detained by ICE

UP NEXT

Trump Warns Protests at Army Parade Will Be Met With Force

UP NEXT

Do Americans Support Trump’s Use of Marines in LA? The Numbers Might Shock You

UP NEXT

Marines Will Deploy to LA for 60 Days, Costing Taxpayers $134 Million

UP NEXT

First the National Guard, Will the Marines Be Next at LA Riots?

UP NEXT

Sly Stone, Maestro of a Multifaceted, Hitmaking Band, Dies at 82

UP NEXT

Sights & Sounds: The 2025 Fresno Rainbow Pride Parade and Festival

UP NEXT

Doctors Were Preparing to Remove Their Organs. Then They Woke Up.

UP NEXT

FDA’s AI Assistant ‘Elsa’ Fails Its First Day on the Job

Fresno Measure C Transportation Tax Talks Continue Amid Renewal Uncertainty

12 hours ago

Judge Bars Trump Administration From Detaining Mahmoud Khalil

12 hours ago

Is a Waxed Apple ‘Ultra-Processed?’ CA Bill Could Trigger a Lawsuit Barrage

12 hours ago

Edmunds: These Five Vehicles Are Hidden Automotive Gems

12 hours ago

GM to Invest $4 Billion to Shift Some Production From Mexico to the US

12 hours ago

How Your Air Conditioner Can Help the Power Grid, Rather Than Overloading It

12 hours ago

Hundreds of Laid-off CDC Employees Are Being Reinstated

13 hours ago

National Guard Troops Have Temporarily Detained Civilians in LA Protests, Commander Says

13 hours ago

This Israeli Government Is a Danger to Jews Everywhere

13 hours ago

Bass and Other California Mayors Call for End to Immigration Raids

13 hours ago

Life-Threatening Meals: Restaurants Would Identify Food Allergens for Diners Under This Proposed Law

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. If Kim Nickols eats dairy, peanuts or wheat, her blood pre...

11 hours ago

11 hours ago

Life-Threatening Meals: Restaurants Would Identify Food Allergens for Diners Under This Proposed Law

11 hours ago

Iran Threatens to Strike US Bases in Region if Military Conflict Arises

11 hours ago

Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades

12 hours ago

Fresno Measure C Transportation Tax Talks Continue Amid Renewal Uncertainty

12 hours ago

Judge Bars Trump Administration From Detaining Mahmoud Khalil

12 hours ago

Is a Waxed Apple ‘Ultra-Processed?’ CA Bill Could Trigger a Lawsuit Barrage

12 hours ago

Edmunds: These Five Vehicles Are Hidden Automotive Gems

12 hours ago

GM to Invest $4 Billion to Shift Some Production From Mexico to the US

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend