“We got you,” Rose McGowan said. “We got you.”
The actress “didn’t believe this day would come,” she said on Megyn Kelly Today on Friday, reacting to the early morning arrest of Harvey Weinstein, whom she says raped her 20 years ago at the Sundance Film Festival. Her reaction was right in line with how much of Hollywood cheered the mogul’s downfall.
Weinstein surrendered to New York authorities around 4.30am Pacific time. He was led into a courtroom in cuffs and charged with crimes including rape for alleged forcible sexual acts against two women in 2013 and 2004, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R Vance Jr said in a statement.
The judge set his bail at $1 million (Dh3.7 million) and restricted his movements to New York and Connecticut. Weinstein agreed to be electronically monitored. He has consistently denied any non-consensual sexual relations and continued to do so on Friday.
Calling the day both real and surreal, McGowan suggested that the surrender was strategically timed.
“He turned himself in on a Friday. That’s a slow news weekend, Memorial Day, so he still has privileges from high up somewhere,” she said. “But this is a big strike into the heart of abuse of power. And this shows people worldwide — which is what I was hoping the whole time — that this cannot and will not stand.
On Thursday night, the 44-year-old actress and activist taped an interview with ABC News that ran on Friday morning on Good Morning America.
“I have a visceral need for him to have handcuffs on,” she said quietly. “His face has terrorised me for so long.” She said she’s talking with another alleged Weinstein victim about attending his trial and she wants the process to be fair.
McGowan also noted that she knows people are sad and sick of so much coverage of men who abuse their power, but noted that they should also imagine how tired of it the women who’ve been assaulted and abused are.
“The first time I saw him after he attacked me was on a red carpet, and I threw up in a trash can. I hope [Friday] maybe it’s him,” she said.
“Maybe it’ll be him that’s nauseous and not me for once.”
Weinstein, through his attorney Benjamin Braffman, remained defiant.
“Mr Weinstein did not invent the casting couch in Hollywood,” Braffman said after the court appearance. “And to the extent that there is bad behaviour in that industry, that is not what this is about. Bad behaviour is not on trial in this case.”
