Exclusive: Ex-Harvey Weinstein Employee Breaks Silence on Her Memo That Helped Take Down Movie Mogul

this is democracy now democracynow.org the war and peace report I'm Amy Goodman we turned out to the story of a woman who helped topple Harvey Weinstein and exposes rampant sexual abuse but has remained largely behind the scenes until now her name is lauren o'connor she was a literary scout at the weinstein company who worked closely with Harvey Weinstein in 2015 she penned an internal memo about her boss that would later become famous in it she wrote I am a 28 year old woman who trying to make a living and a career Harvey Weinstein is a 64 year old world-famous man and this is his company the balance of power is me zero Harvey Weinstein 10 unquote this memo was later leaked and would eventually become the bedrock of the 2017 New York Times investigation that first exposed Weinstein's decades of abuse Loren O'Connor tells her own story for the first time in the documentary untouchable the damning film about Weinstein's abuse of power through the eyes of the women he targeted it premiered at Sundance on Friday i sat down with Loren this weekend for her first television interview and asked her about what led her to write that memo I wrote the memo after I've been at the company for about two years I started at 26 uknown Adrian the weinstein company as a literary scout huge book nerd so I basically got to find movies or books to make into movies and TV shows you know it was a dream job it was a dream job I like to work hard I respond to rigor and you get a phone call from a company that changed changed the way movies are made and you know it's a total dream it's a total dream I expected when I started there you know I went in with my eyes wide open I expected rigorous hours late night phone calls to travel a lot and I was really ready for it in fact I hoped to work closely with him because you know you really would be taking a master class you'd learn things that are unteachable just through exposure you know in surviving an environment like Weinstein learning being able to handle the intensity of that company it equipped you with skills to walk into any room any area of your field for the rest of your life what I didn't expect was the abuse I'd be exposed to the abuse that I'd see others you know have to withstand was there a precipitating event that led you to sit down and write this memo yes oh there was one particular event in which things I may be perceived were going on became undeniably clear and I you know I talked about it a bit you know in untouchable as well I was on a trip with Harvey I traveled a lot with him middle of the night a young woman comes to my hotel room pounding on the door and she is crying I'm shaking and you know so I asked her to come in and ask her what's wrong and there's you know hesitation before she tells me and starts explaining to me a woods now referred to as a massage incident had occurred explain what that means you know that she had been with him in his room and I'd probably think my guess is taking a meeting and he'd asked for a massage she said no he kept pushing the subject matter it eventually I think she got scared and so she just gave him a massage and got the hell out of there because saying no is starting to escalate the scenario rather than neutralize it and got you know got her to win of safety but she came in the room and she was I mean really distraught and when something like that happens when you are a secondhand witness to something you really can't forget that you can't unsee that and you're presented with a really clear choice that at the end of the day doesn't feel like a choice at all you know are you going to do something about it or not and really that isn't a choice to make and so the question becomes how do you do something about it so explain what you did it took it took me some time to figure out what you know how to how to how to speak up how to speak up but you know eventually I filed a you know pretty extensive complaint detailing that allegation and in other instances with HR which has since been referred to as the memo you know and I think I think in that I I really you know look when I filed them em I knew there was a this is if you filed it with human relations at the Weinstein yes yes and I think you know when I filed the memo I knew it was a great risk to my my career in my professional track potentially risk you know potentially at risk to myself as an individual but I think on some level and I don't know his stuff is naive or not but I really hoped that if something was in writing them when HR read it they wouldn't be able to unknown at in the same way that when a young woman told me what happened to her I couldn't unhear it and I really I really thought there was a chance that the system would would be driven by humanity in an instance like that you know that that some there would be some repercussions that some sort of change would be made so we haven't seen the whole memo the New York Times had it leaked to them but one of the things you say that they quote is suspecting that you and other female Weinstein employees were being used to facilitate liaison quote with vulnerable women who hope he will get them work explain what you meant the best way I can explain the dynamic at that company and the way female employees were utilized there's one example you know that really readily comes to mind regarding a flight attendant and I think it really exemplifies how difficult it was for the left hand to know what the right hand was doing at every step of the way and how cleverly he wielded internal systems to that end you know as I said I traveled with Harvey a lot and I remember we were you know getting off a flight it was a private flight we get down to the bottom you know we've boarded off the plane and he sends me back up on the plane alone to get the phone number of the flight of young flight attendant under the auspices that she had done a great job on the plane and he wanted to employ her again fair enough right your boss is asking you to help you hire someone so you know go back up on the plane and it's funny because I remember earlier in the flight they've been talking I remember her aged she was 21 for whatever reason I clocked that she'd have a wedding band on like on some level I was picking up on something but what are you gonna say to your boss who's given you a perfectly reasonable ask this person did a good job I'd like to hire them so take the phone number hope that your you know your spidey sense is way off you know and and that it's your compass that's askew and and then this is where the systems of workflow come into play in a way that completely confuses the intention you know so the rhythm was this we would I took the number down sent to you know the New York office to be filed in contacts then that's passed to another person's hand to be put in the file you know in the database then later and I didn't piece this out until two days later on the trip that this is how this happened the assistant who is on the trip with him but did not hear me or see him tell me to go get her phone number is then told separately by him please get the phone number for the woman you know find the phone number the woman who you know the woman I met earlier today I'm meeting her for a drink so then that phone call goes in separately to the office into one of four people who don't have context so by the time I reach out is made to the flight attendant to set up a cocktail meeting no one knows that she's a flight attendant no one there's no context for how or why he met her there is no there is no understanding of the purpose and he could give that person any reason and present it professionally or within understandable personal means and you know and it's it's I mean quite literally it was a game of telephone there are a lot of people myself included I look back sometimes I'm like what meeting was i setting up I had no idea so you send this letter to HR did you send it to your boss no you sent it to HR did someone get in touch with you right away yes HR got in touch with me and you know what's interesting is to this day I still do not know if any change was made inside the company I do not know if there was any effect on the way on the work and the task given to female employees and male employees I have no idea do you think he was told Harvey wines I don't know I don't know I have no idea what happened next among the things you wrote was there's a toxic environment for women at this company can you talk about his interactions with you you know it's funny Harvey and I actually had a really strong working dialogue you know we we had really productive meetings together we were able to work long hours so it was a really quite a paradoxical thing where I was learning a lot and I was excelling in my role at the company but you know look Harvey's a notoriously passionate person to put it lightly there's a lot of vulgarity a lot of yelling you know it was a mixed bag you know one thing that I remember looking when I look back I remember and I can't tell you why or when this shifted but at some point very early on in my time there I did stop wearing makeup stopped doing my hair stopped wearing form-fitting clothing mostly wore black and like I look back and I like actually remember you know this period of time which my friends would like joke about how my entire effect changed I have no idea why I stopped why I started hiding my figure and myself I have no idea but I think on some level there was some sort of protective instinct kicking in so on October 5th the New York Times comes out with their piece October 5th 2017 I assume your life was very different after that day than it was before what happened for you yeah it's um it's interesting I think is sitting where we sit today right there seem to be two paths two paths this when it comes to you know standing up to abuse standing up to power right one is localized and a little more private you know my case I went to HR you go to the systems the small powers that be that not small but the localized powers that be that you think will be able to affect immediate change you know as we've already discussed you're often left wondering if any change occurs you're also often silenced the other path is you know it's public and whether you move forward on a private path or a public path it's a devil's trade and I think when you're positioned publicly it's very difficult to conceive just to conceive of just how high the cost of courage is and just how literal the tax on integrity is you know thinking about my own experience you know at the time that the you know when the New York Times that first expose I published you know featured my name my memo I was still handcuffed by a very strict NDA non-disclosure non-disclosure agreement which said I guess it's a non-disclosure yeah I had a non-disclosure agreement which restricted me from talking about any of my experiences or my memo or acknowledging it and you know so I remember in the lead-up to the New York Times article publishing that featured my name and my memo sitting for an hour and a half in a Walgreens parking lot with a burner phone crying because I couldn't figure out how to call mom and dad back on the East Coast I was living in LA at the time and tell them that their daughter was going to end up was likely going to end up in a newspaper an a major article about sexual assault sexual harassment tied to a very powerful man I couldn't I mean because I was too scared to say anything you know there was just such a clear demarcation point of life before in life after I mean one of the most trivial examples and yet something really lasting just really one the grilled cheese is my favorite food and I you know when the article published I was at work I was downstairs getting a grilled cheese sandwich in the local cafe the timing took me by I had no idea the articles publishing that day had no idea when it was publishing and you know some standing there waiting for my food and i black out and it was the smell of the grilled cheese that actually brought me back to my senses and I can't eat grilled cheese anymore and it's such a silly thing but that's it it's it's things that trivial change and then on a larger level they're really they're practical impacts you know when we talk about cost and tax those are real things you know people often ask me to hardly retaliate and you know I've read in papers that you know there was someone following me since 2016 who knows I've read in another newspaper that you know just to say what you're referring to at least according to untouchable this documentary about Weinstein and pieces written in The New Yorker and in the New York Times this Israeli company black cube that Harvey Weinstein employed that used former Israeli Mossad agents to investigate people like Rosanna Arquette and others yeah well could be it had been on that look yeah there is a guardian report that suggested I was and but what's funny is when we talk about retaliation even with all that in the mix Harvey has not come after me financially he has not come after me legally and yet I still have hundreds of thousands of dollars in bills that I cannot pay why from the last year and a half you know there are a lot of legal situations surrounding this then because of the many women who have come yes yes that have required you know participation or support you know legal support on my end and then there's also there's therapy you know I think when you go through trauma therapy is crucial both in weathering it and in recovering from it those bills are expensive I mean where I sit today you know I've blown through my entire savings in a year and a half I am in debt I haven't really figured out past next month how I am going to pay for therapy and I'm employed full time I have a good job you know and it's there's a real literal cost to all of this and then there's a very personal cost you know there's there's a personal cost when you're positioned publicly whether you choose to go public or are made public you know in regardless of whether you do or don't have power or platform you are thereafter defined by a single instant you are called a victim or a survivor you are called a whistleblower or complicit you have to then operate through the rest of your life every every time you walk into a room you whether it's a business meeting a first aid or making a new friend you have to assume that that that's one moment of time in your life precedes you that someone has already decided who you are and it's it's ironic we're in a moment right now that is about you know it's about consent it's about ownership of voice it's in direct protests to objectification and yet when you are made into a public figure you risk being objectified all over again by it by a label we we forgot how to see the human being behind the headlines and that's that's a tricky thing so let me ask you an organization like x that just grew up in response to the whole meet you movement that has raised tens of millions of dollars particularly for situations like yours and are you reaching out to them are they reaching out to you I've been in touch with times up and I think that their mission is hugely admirable I'm really grateful they exist I wish they had back in 2015 when I was you know filing harassment you are buying harassment complaint I should say but you know their focus from my understanding right now is singularly on act of harassment cases which of course is not the situation I'm in whether it's sexual assault and harassment or going or dealing with it by seeing other people like the woman who came to your room or what you experienced yourself in untouchable the film about Harvey Weinstein you describe your experience when you got something wrong how Harvey responded oh yeah you know there's this one time and I talked about an untouchable where I you know I made a mistake and we've been working up in his hotel room which was actually quite common and you know I was getting up to leave the room at the end of the evening and he was very angry still can't remember the mistake I made we'll never be able to forget what he said to me you know in any he's yelling it means big man maybe you know a couple inches away from my face my back's up against the wall the doors to my right the rest of the rooms to my left and I can't really get past him and and he says to me it's funny it was almost a compliment thrown in there he says to me you're smart enough to be me one day but if you don't want to be me if you don't want to be me maybe you should just go marry some fat rich Jewish because maybe all you're good for is making babies and you're sitting there you're like okay I want I need to get out of here so you got it yeah and it's you know I I don't believe that's true about me but it's you can't forget that so 2017 the article comes out and your memo is joined with well the awareness that came out in both these pieces and subsequent reporting and then women coming forward themselves whether we're talking about Angelina Jolie or Gwyneth Paltrow or Rosanna Arquette or Rose McGowan talking about being raped right here at the Sundance Film Festival in 1997 one story after another how did this affect you and were you shocked by it I I'm so grateful for all those women who came forward I really bottomed my heart and the ones who continue to do you know when the the article I my mom was featured in published it was the very first story on any of this if you're a powerful media figure you can bury one story you can't bury hundreds of stories so you know the Solidarity of provided by each woman that came forward actually protected me too and I am so grateful for that and I think one of the most beautiful things we've seen happen over the last year and a half is that you know rape is often a word associated with shame you know and in the place of shame we've we've we've seen the word rape come out of the closet in the place of shame there's solidarity and it's that's not something I could have conceived of and I think it's brilliant and what I'd love to see next is you know policy really rise to meet social change and grow in support of it I want to go back to that quote from your memo I'm a 28 year old woman trying to make a living in a career well you can take it from there the balance of power is me zero Harvey Weinstein ten talk about that balance of power and what that means power operates on multiple levels it operates in professional hierarchy right you have juniors and seniors and presidents and CEOs and CEOs power operates across the media do you have platform do you have voice do you not have platform do you not have voice power operates across finances do you have money do you not have money and it operates across gender so when we talk about you know Harvey Weinstein you know being stalked at 10:00 and me stacked at zero those are those are the measurements when he was charged last year from May through July one crime after another for which he will go to trial apparently in something like May pre-trial hearings and March charged with rape charge with predatory sexual assault charged with sex crimes faces more than life in prison your thoughts I'm really grateful to see due process at play here but I also don't think that the one man losing his job we're going to trial means that the world has changed and I think why it's people were seeing men and women alike stand up for here over the past year and a half and through me too is for a system to change an a system to change in that in that it protects the abused and not the abuser and a system that resets the balance of power are you suing Harvey Weinstein no Lauren you saw the film untouchable for the first time this past week I'm wondering your response to the film and particularly to Zelda Perkins who like you worked for Harvey Weinstein and was spurred into action when another young woman was abused by him and she resigned over that I mean first of all to Zelda thank you I think it's you know it's hard for me to articulate how isolating my own experience has been both when I worked there after filing the memo and being silenced and still then being restricted by an NDA while volume erupted over the last year around around Harvey so when I learned about Zelda's story it was actually deeply reassuring it was deeply reassuring and you know I don't know as all done I feel kindred with her how did you make the decision to come forward in the film untouchable to actually be filmed I mean the times had printed your name and excerpts of this memo that you didn't like what made you decide to come forward you know we're not--we're in a moment and a movement that's you know about ownership of voice ultimately and I think it's an important part of healing I think it's a really important part of healing to use your voice and it was it was time for me an O'Conner a former literary scout at The Weinstein Company she's featured in the new documentary untouchable about the movie mogul Harvey Weinstein who's rumored to be here in Park City now the film premiered here at the Sundance Film Festival this marked Lauren O'Connor's first time speaking on television her 2015 internal memo helped expose Weinstein's misconduct that does it for our show Democracy Now is accepting applications for a full time one year paid news fellowship details at democracynow.org I'm Amy Goodman thanks so much for joining us you

Channel: Democracy Now!

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Keywords: Democracy Now, Amy Goodman, DN, News, Politics, democracynow.org, Video, Independent Media, Daily News, Breaking News, World News, Interview, Sundance Film Festival, documentary, Harvey Weinstein, sexual assault, rape, rape culture, Hollywood, Rose McGowan, Untouchable, Lauren O'Connor, memo, Weinstein Company, power balance, New York Times, reporting, Me Too, believe women, film, Ursula Macfarlane, abuse

Id: 19S8nX_C33I

Length: 26min 13sec (1573 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 29 2019