WHEN Rowena Chiu was supplied a job at Miramax, in 1998, she thought her dream of a profession within the movie trade was lastly coming true.
Lower than a month later, she was combating off her bare boss, serial intercourse offender Harvey Weinstein, in a Venice resort room.
The Brit - aged 24 on the time - was left suicidal by the alleged assault, was compelled into signing a Non-Disclosure Settlement (NDA), and was too afraid to talk out towards Weinstein for over twenty years.
However in 2019, she turned certainly one of over 100 girls who accused the once-powerful predator of rape or sexual assault, together with Gwyneth Paltrow, Salma Hayek and Rose McGowan.
Final week, Weinstein - who was initially jailed in 2020 - was sentenced to 16 extra years for the rape and sexual assault of one other sufferer, referred to as Jane Doe 1, in a Los Angeles court docket.
Rowena appeared as a supporting, uncharged witness within the trial — that means that the costs Weinstein confronted within the case didn't stem from her account, which he continues to disclaim.
Now Rowena says a “second wave” of the #MeToo motion is required to deliver down “enablers”, together with the legal professionals who helped cowl up his vile crimes.
“It's my fervent hope that the contemporary 16-year sentence continues to supply Weinstein’s 111-and-counting survivors with a measure of peace,” she says, including that there's "nonetheless a lot work to be executed".
“The primary precedence was placing folks like Harvey Weinstein, Invoice Cosby and R. Kelly on the stand and convicting individuals who have preyed on younger girls and, in some circumstances, younger males.
“However in addition to placing away the predators, I'd have favored to see the dismantling of the system that protected them.
“That does not essentially imply - though it may imply - that his legal professionals and accountants and the Weinstein Firm board would stand trial, however they need to be held accountable.”
'Wandering palms'
Rowena, born in Hong Kong and raised in Welwyn Backyard Metropolis, was an English Literature graduate from Oxford when she landed the position of a private assistant to Weinstein, in 1998.
Though feted in dozens of Oscar speeches, Weinstein had a fearsome status for being troublesome and Rowena says he yelled and swore at her throughout their first encounter, at a screening of his Oscar-winning hit Shakespeare in Love.
She says her predecessor Zelda Perkins, who additionally employed her, warned her to not sit on the identical couch as Weinstein and instructed he had “wandering palms”.
“Zelda mentioned that he was very troublesome to deal with and I knew his mood was legendary,” she says. “However neither Zelda nor I have been conscious he was a serial rapist and I used to be reassured by the truth that so many shiny younger girls labored with him and gave the impression to be thriving.
“I assumed he may need wandering palms however within the Nineteen Nineties, within the movie trade, sexual harassment was normalised.”
Vile assault
Regardless of the warnings, nothing ready her for the horror that may unfold on the Venice Movie Pageant, the place Miramax unveiled Shakespeare in Love.
Instructed she would wish to share a resort suite with Weinstein, as he habitually labored till 2am, Rowena says she was so cautious of his behaviour that she wore two pairs of tights over her underwear.
As quickly as they arrived, she claims that Weinstein turned into a bathrobe which he left open, and over the following 4 hours he repeatedly cajoled her, asking her to take off her garments, begging for a therapeutic massage and asking her for oral intercourse.
She says she lastly she agreed to provide him a therapeutic massage however he then pushed her on to the mattress, tore off her underwear and instructed her: “You might have an ideal profession should you simply give me 5 minutes.”
Rowena says she lastly escaped by telling him Zelda could be fearful about her earlier than confiding in her colleague, who pulled her boss out of a gathering to confront him.
“We thought as soon as folks knew what Harvey had executed, he would get reported to the police, get arrested and be tried for sexual assault,” she says.
“We did not realise how troublesome it was for younger girls to be believed. We have been naïve and didn’t realise our seniors would do nothing and maybe already knew what Harvey had executed to different girls.
“I used to be fearful and traumatised and Harvey was a really powerful man.”
We did not realise how troublesome it was for younger girls to be believed.
Rowena Chiu
After agreeing to debate an NDA she claims the pair have been “made to really feel like criminals” by legal professionals, who bullied them into signing and accepting a £125,000 settlement in change for silence.
“The conferences on the regulation agency have been late at night time as a result of Harvey was terrified that we'd be noticed throughout sunlight hours,” she says.
“We weren’t fed, we have been escorted to the loos, we weren't allowed a pen and paper, we have been stored there till 5 within the morning.
“It made us really feel like criminals and that we didn’t have any energy - which in fact we didn’t.”
Among the many astonishing clauses within the contract, she says, have been a ban on the 2 girls contacting one another and speaking to a therapist.
Attorneys additionally allegedly took the names and addresses of family and friends members, threatening to return after them in the event that they uncovered the assault.
“That was terrifying,” says Rowena.
“I used to be terrified for my private security however the factor that stored me sure into silence greater than anything, was the concept that my family and friends would come to hurt due to what had occurred to me.
“It's normal for sexual assault survivors in charge themselves, and I blamed myself for not being robust sufficient and never standing as much as him, and I assumed my family and friends may doubtlessly undergo because of this. That’s an incredible burden of guilt for a teenager to hold."
Suicide makes an attempt
After leaving Miramax, Rowena, who was nonetheless determined to work in movie or tv, attended a whole lot of interviews, however the spectre of Weinstein’s affect loomed giant.
“I used to be blackballed, both consciously or unconsciously,” she says.
“Such was his energy that he did not must name anybody and inform them to not make use of me.
"In case you have a brief time frame working for Harvey in your CV, interviewers are going to ask you what occurred. I couldn’t inform them so I appeared cagey.
“One interviewer instructed me: ‘We known as you in since you labored for Harvey Weinstein however we aren’t going to make use of anybody who labored for Harvey briefly after which left abruptly as a result of we won't afford to offend him.’
“That was devastating to me, as a result of my dream of working in movie was over."
She provides: “I used to be so sad, I tried suicide twice in Hong Kong.”
Talking out
Ultimately Rowena went again to enterprise faculty and cast a brand new profession as a enterprise marketing consultant.
Even after assembly husband Andrew Cheung, with whom she shares 4 youngsters, she didn’t reveal what had occurred in that Venice resort room till 2017, when she was approached by New York Instances journalist Jodi Kantor, who was gathering tales from Weinstein’s victims.
Now a fierce advocate for the #MeToo motion, and the banning of NDAs to gag survivors of sexual assault, she is eager so as to add variety to the talk.
“I wish to converse up for all the opposite girls that may't as a result of the #MeToo motion usually centres on the white narrative and the well-known victims,” she says.
“I feel it is actually necessary that the so-called ‘atypical’ folks, the non-famous folks, additionally converse up and, as a Chinese language lady, I'm a voice of variety as a result of girls of color are sometimes extra weak."
There’s at all times going to be one other Harvey Weinstein as a result of there are at all times going to be monsters who abuse energy
Rowena Chiu
Rowena was portrayed by actress Angela Yeoh within the current film She Stated, which centres on Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor’s combat to deliver the Miramax boss to trial.
Now the mum-of-four is set the world her two daughters, now 13 and 11, inhabit won't enable historical past to repeat itself.
“There’s at all times going to be one other Harvey Weinstein as a result of there are at all times going to be monsters who abuse energy," she says.
“However whereas others are silent, flip their heads and allow him to do that, whereas there are legal professionals that can take his cash to barter horrific NDAs with younger girls, it’s doable for an additional individual to return alongside and abuse energy in the way in which that Harvey did.”
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