Lupita Nyong'o Details Harvey Weinstein's Advances Toward Her in New Op-Ed Piece

Lupita Nyong’o is the latest star in Hollywood to come forward with her experiences with producer Harvey Weinstein.

The Oscar-winning actress has written a lengthy op-ed piece for The New York Times, in which she opens up about how she met Weinstein years before breaking out onto the scene with 12 Years a Slave.

Lupita first met Weinstein at an event in Berlin in 2011 while she was a student at the Yale School of Drama. They exchanged information and he later invited her to his home in Westport, Conn. to watch a screening of a movie produced by a rival company. His family was to be present at the screening. At a private lunch, she says he forced her to order an alcoholic beverage and told her she needed to drink it when she refused.

Lupita says that in her first encounter with Harvey, she found him to be “very direct and authoritative, but also charming,” but in the second she “found him to be pushy and idiosyncratic more than anything.”

Shortly after the screening at Weinstein‘s home started, he escorted her out of the theater.

“Harvey led me into a bedroom – his bedroom – and announced that he wanted to give me a massage,” she wrote. “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.”

When Harvey tried to take off his pants, Lupita said she was comfortable and headed for the door and said it was time for her to leave.

Lupita wrote about some more encounters with Harvey, the final one being a dinner they had after she felt it was clear that boundaries were in place.

“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,’” Lupita said. She declined and he told her to leave. When she asked if they were “good,” Harvey replied and said, “I don’t know about your career, but you’ll be fine.”

“I did not see Harvey again until September 2013 when I was in Toronto for the premiere of 12 Years a Slave, the first feature film I was in. At an after-party, he found me and evicted whoever was sitting next to me to sit beside me. He said he couldn’t believe how fast I had gotten to where I was, and that he had treated me so badly in the past. He was ashamed of his actions and he promised to respect me moving forward. I said thank you and left it at that. But I made a quiet promise to myself to never ever work with Harvey Weinstein,” she continued.

Lupita says that Harvey tried to work with her after winning the Oscar, but she refused.

“Now that we are speaking, let us never shut up about this kind of thing. I speak up to make certain that this is not the kind of misconduct that deserves a second chance. I speak up to contribute to the end of the conspiracy of silence,” she concluded the piece.