Weinstein’s former assistant breaks NDA after 20 years of silence

Rowena Chiu is finally coming to light. She wanted to do it before but she couldn't and she is still taking risks. What happened that made you decide that it was okay for her to talk? Well, I think talking today was a very long journey. It's another violation of my confidentiality agreement that is still technically illegal. So it's still scary, but I think in addition to the legal repercussions, the personal repercussions for me were very powerful as a

silence

r. This is a woman with the story of a time that broke her life. She is the daughter of Chinese immigrants.

An Oxford University graduate straight out of school, he landed his dream job in the '90s at Miramax as Harvey Weinstein's

assistant

. It was supposed to be the big start. Do you have a dream. That's how it is. And you get this great job. You must have been excited? Yes, I was absolutely excited. I appreciated the opportunity to travel. Part of the work would involve traveling with Harvey to various European film festivals. So overall it was an exciting position. I felt that at a young age we would have a say. We know that it will influence the next films that Miramax finances.

Now, it was rumored that working specifically for Harvey was very difficult. We knew he had a legendary temperament. We knew he was a difficult person to deal with. I certainly didn't go into work thinking he was a serial rapist. Was there any concrete advice on how to physically protect yourself from it? Well, there were rumors, of course, about, you know, wearing more clothes around Harvey Weinstein. I put on two pairs of socks in response to that kind of joke. And I figured it wouldn't hurt if he put extra layers of clothing on me. And if something terrible happened, it could buy me some time.

According to Chiu, that was a sadly wise decision. 1998, Venice Film Festival. Chiu is assigned night shifts with Weinstein. The highest-ranking

assistant

, Zelda Perkins, takes the first turns. Perkins had warned Chiu about Weinstein, but both women thought everything would be fine. She tells us it wasn't good. Normally, night shifts were pretty difficult because she was alone with Harvey. Zelda wouldn't be in the room and there would definitely be requests for inappropriate sexual contact during that time. You know, there's a big sense that she would combine the work we were doing on the scripts with more personal questions and really inappropriate requests.

So, you know, one minute he'd ask me my opinion on a certain movie script and whether I thought it was a great story or not and how strong the characterization was and then the next minute he'd ask me for a massage and so on. in. Is there relevance to your ethnicity and background in your interactions with Harvey? Did you make a problem of that? She mentioned that she liked Chinese girls because they were discreet and she said so in public. But then, privately, you know that would be twisted: I'd never had a Chinese girl and I wanted to try this kind of thing.

Because the subtext is I really like your discretion because you're not going to complain about me. Whatever it does to you. That's a threat. I think it's a dangerous subtext. Can I ask you and again you don't have to tell me, but can I ask you what happened on what is possibly the night? We talked a little about scripts. We spent some time arguing, you know, he engaged in some flattery about how I graduated in English literature at Oxford, which he also really likes to allude to. He asked me a little about my boyfriend. He asked me how long we had been together and if he was my first boyfriend, etc.

And then I guess the conversation got personal very quickly. He asked me for a massage. He had taken off his clothes so he was naked. Then he asked me for a massage which I didn't want to give him. He asked me to take off a few layers of clothes. Saying that it was hot in the hotel room or that I would feel more comfortable. If he took off more of my clothes and that way it was almost an assiduous, you know, gradual path towards asking for more and more overt sexual favors. And from there he took it to pinning me against the bed and asking me for just one lunge and saying just one lunge and it would all be over.

Oh my god, your head must have been spinning. It was quite a terrifying experience. She says it was a lot to handle. At the first opportunity, she describes having a calm, urgent conversation with Zelda Perkins to tell her what had happened. In fact I think we both cried. Zelda went to confront Harvey immediately, which I think was incredibly brave. I mean, I don't think many people in her position at 25

years

old and as Harvey's assistant would have the courage to come down and talk to him right away when she's having lunch with such high-profile people. The women had a plan.

Back in London, they would sound the alarm and the company hoped Weinstein would be reprimanded. Forced to undergo counseling. Perhaps rules would be established for working with women. But they say the lawyers were simply interested in something different. Compensation for

silence

. The confidentiality agreement they signed still haunts them. How would you characterize the silence they sought? How wide was it? Absolute, absolute. We were told that this period of our lives should be considered a black hole. We could refer in the lightest terms possible to the fact that we had worked for Harvey Weinstein, but we wouldn't go into any detail about the nature of that job or what happens after that job or the fact that there was an NDA or the fact that that there was some money from the settlement.

You couldn't refer to any of that. In fact, it felt so onerous that Zelda and I implicitly made a pact not to speak to each other and we didn't after the taxi ride from the law firm once we signed the confidentiality agreement. The next time I heard from Zelda was in October 2017. And we signed that agreement in October 1998. So it's almost 20

years

. Yes, 19 years to a month that we had not spoken. Did you know when you separated from that taxi that you wouldn't talk? I think there was a clear feeling that we wouldn't stay in each other's lives because we were talking about how difficult it was not to refer to this period of our lives.

But how does it feel to lose the only person who was by your side the entire time? I think it was incredibly difficult. But not only had I lost the only colleague I could talk to about this, but the inability to talk to anyone in my personal life about a truly traumatic event meant it wasn't really possible to process it. I wonder how much a secret like this weighs. Clearly a lot because I really found it to be an impossible burden to bear. And there came a point where I tried to commit suicide a couple of times.

And I really felt like I was never going to escape the secret. You are calm, almost matter-of-fact about what happened and where does that calmness come from? I think being British and Chinese means I'm not necessarily overly transparent, but I think appearing calm doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't a very scary experience. So the screams were inside your head? There are screams inside my head since... At the time of the attacks, absolutely. I still feel helpless. Zelda and I are now in our 40s and yet there is still no remedy in the legal world or there does not seem to be a remedy available to us in the legal world.

Who knows what will happen with the criminal trial, but you know that publicly telling a story in the media is not necessarily an easy solution to everything that has happened. Time. The efforts of journalists to find them launched the Me Too movement. All of this collided to get the two women back together. I would like to say that Zelda and Rowena are here tonight and are speaking in active violation of this confidentiality agreement and this agreement. They discovered that both voices were choosing to break their confidentiality agreements. All of this could intimidate some into returning to the shadows.

But Rowena Chiu no longer. How did Harvey Weinstein respond when he told her his story? His attorney released a statement saying that Harvey Weinstein and I had had a six-month consensual physical relationship and that Harvey was looking for ways to take legal action against me for violating my confidentiality agreement. Is it worth it to you? We'll see, I'm on a long journey. I am encouraged by the raised voices of other victims, but also of people who remain silent to this day. And they feel that in some way I speak for them. I won't know the long-term repercussions of speaking openly for a long time.

But so far I have no regrets. And it's a pleasure to meet you, Rowena. Nice to meet you too. Thank you very very much. We appreciate that. We asked Weinstein's lawyers to respond to Rowena Choose's allegations and eventually received this statement from his public relations firm. I do not quote Mr. Weinstein nor his representatives will comment on these matters. I hope you can be objective.