Notorious Predator Still Convinced He Did Nothing Wrong

It’s been eight years since Harvey Weinstein was arrested, and five years since he’s been behind bars—and in a new interview, it’s clear that Hollywood’s most notorious sex pest still believes he’s an innocent man. Right…

 

The Hollywood Reporter’s Maer Roshan sat down with Weinstein on Rikers Island in January, publishing the convicted sex offender’s first interview since his incarceration in February 2o2o. Roshan was afforded 60 minutes, and in that time, Weinstein dodged questions, complained about prison, gushed about his favorite films from his disgraced career, and blamed his character flaws on his daddy/uncle issues.

 

It’s clear that since his arrest in 2018, the man has only developed a desire to escape. When Roshan asked if he had ever apologized to the women who brought charges against him, he replied, “I apologized to them generally. You can’t call them when you’re in a trial with them. But I’ll say it here today: I apologize to those women. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been with them in the first place. I misled them… But I did not assault them. That is the big lie of all of this. I won’t apologize for something I didn’t do. I will be proven innocent.” What in the god-complex?

 

“Did I overplay my hand? Yes,” he also insisted. “But did I ever sexually assault a woman? No. I never did that.” The old I might be a douche, but I’m not a criminal is still his only defense to the nearly 100 women who have come forward with sexual abuse allegations against him.

 

He then called out several actresses: “If the camera’s on, I’m just going to say Rosanna Arquette, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie — they just exaggerated. They wanted to be part of the club. And they destroyed me.” Ah, yes, the club. The club no one wants to be part of, yet one in five women is. He also went on about Paltrow, whom he claimed was a lifelong friend, saying she “stabbed him in the back” by choosing to come forward with her story.

 

Near the end of the interview, Roshan asked Weinstein how he’d cast himself if he were making a movie about him being a sex pest. “Villain? Victim? Tragic hero?” Weinstein replied: 

All three. I did flawed and ugly things. But I also did a lot of great things — I helped change the culture. I built a lot of careers. I was kind to a lot of people. I’m not a victim. I’m a survivor. A survivor of my own flaws. But I’m in a tough situation, and I know it. I have to give myself pep talks because nobody else will.

The tone of malignant narcissism is strikingly similar to one we’ve become all too familiar with in recent years—and I’m torn between psychoanalyzing his mental state and just accepting that he’s lying through his teeth. 

 

“I was a fool. I admit that,” Weinstein said. Sure. And a convicted sex offender. 

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