Speaking out. Mira Sorvino revealed she was a victim of date rape while speaking at a news conference with Andrew Cuomo, the Governor of New York.
“I can stand here before you and say not only was I a sexual harassment and battery victim at the hands of Mr. Weinstein, but I’m also a sexual-assault victim and I’m also a survivor of date rape,” the 51-year-old actress said at the Wednesday, June 12, conference.
Sorvino, who is pushing for stronger sexual harassment laws in New York, got emotional as she continued to speak at the state Capitol.
“I’ve never said that in public and I do not want to go into detail,” the Oscar winner explained. “But I had never said that last part in public because it is impossible sometimes to share these sorts of things, and I am doing it here to try to help because there are all these survivors out there right now who need justice.”
Sorvino continued: ”You feel shame. You feel like somehow it was your fault, that you should have been smarter, that you should have protected yourself better, you should have not taken that drink, who knows what was in it.”
The Romy and Michelle actress previously spoke out about sexual assault in 2017 after The New York Times published an exposé detailing more than 30 years of misconduct claims against Harvey Weinstein.
“I have lived in vague fear of Harvey Weinstein for over 20 years,” Sorvino wrote in a profile published by TIME in October 2017. “At the time, I don’t think I even knew what happened — him using business-related situations to try and press himself sexually on a young woman in his employ — qualified as sexual harassment. But as a woman who routinely advocates for women and girls who have been victimized in my role as Goodwill Ambassador with the United Nations, and as a mother, I could no longer remain silent.”
Weinstein, who was fired from his own company amid the multiple accusations against him, denied “any allegations of non-consensual sex” in a statement at the time. The disgraced movie producer was arrested and charged with rape in 2018 and subsequently released on $1 million bail.
