Lena Headey on how rejecting Harvey Weinstein’s advances affected her career

In October of 2017, when women were coming forward and sharing details of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s years of sexual misconduct, Game of Thrones star Lena Headey told her own frightening story:

At the moment, Weinstein is out on $1 million bail as he faces charges of rape, criminal sex act, sex abuse and sexual misconduct. He has to wear an ankle monitor and limit his travel to New York and Connecticut. Hollywood is still coming to grips with the deleterious effect he and people like him had and have on the movie industry. Speaking to the British newspaper The Sunday Times, Headey wondered if rejecting Weinstein’s advances back then harmed her career:

"After he was discovered to be a slimeball, on a grander scale than me just knowing it, I did start thinking, ‘F—, maybe because I didn’t shag him, that’s impacted a decade of my working life. Because I did two jobs for [Weinstein’s production company] Miramax before those incidents, and after that there was nothing."

The last Miramax film Headey appeared in was 2005’s The Brothers Grimm. Happily, she found plenty of work at other studios, including on a little show called Game of Thrones for HBO, but it’s got to be unsettling to think you could have missed out on career opportunities because you didn’t want to sleep with someone.

A Weinstein representative denied Headey’s claims, for what it’s worth, which is not much at all. God, can you imagine being a rep for Harvey Weinstein? What a horrible job.

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With any luck, there’s a new day dawning in Hollywood. As Headey sees it, Game of Thrones, with its plethora of powerful female characters, is having a positive effect on mainstream media, making it part of that change. “It does mirror what is going on [in the real world],” she said. “It’s moving forward. For me, the thought of younger actresses not having to deal with predatory idiots. … I mean, there are always chances, but having an easier path and it being about who is best for the role, rather than who you want to take for dinner, is exciting.”

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h/t People