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Minka Kelly Apologizes For Being 'Complicit' In Keeping Weinstein Rumors Quiet

Photo: Matt Baron/REX/Shutterstock.
Minka Kelly just joined the ever-growing list of women to step forward and tell their stories about being propositioned by Harvey Weinstein. Kelly shared her experience in an Instagram post accompanying a photo of a cross-stitch created by crafty activist Shannon Downey that says, “Boys will be Boys held accountable for their fucking actions.” In her post, the actress also apologized for not speaking out against Weinstein sooner.
In the 400-word caption of the Instagram photo, Minka Kelly wrote about the first time she had a general meeting with Weinstein, saying that he had originally scheduled it to take place in his hotel room. Because she was uncomfortable meeting with him alone and told her agent so, they rescheduled to meet in the hotel restaurant with an assistant.
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Even after Kelly changed the arrangements in order to make herself feel safer, Weinstein asked the assistant to leave during the meeting and used the alone time as an opportunity to hit on her. Kelly wrote, "He bullshit me for 5 minutes re: movies he could put me in, then asked the assistant to excuse us. As she walked away, he said, 'I know you were feeling what I was feeling when we met the other night' and then regaled me with offers of a lavish life filled with trips around the world on private planes etc. IF I would be his girlfriend." Because Weinstein held all the power in the situation, Kelly responded by saying that though she was flattered, she would prefer to keep their relationship professional. To that, he said, "Fine. I trust you won't tell anyone about this."
And that, specifically, was what Minka Kelly wanted to apologize for. Her silence.
And she kept silent about her experience for a long time, and about that, she wrote, "I'm sorry for obliging his orders to be complicit in protecting his behavior, which he obviously knew was wrong or he wouldn’t have asked me not to tell anyone in the first place. For making him feel ok about the gross things he was saying and that I felt my only route was to say I was flattered. For not insisting that my reps never allow anyone to take a meeting in a hotel room (with him or anyone else), because I honestly don’t know what might have happened if I’d just showed up as originally scheduled."
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Read the full post below:

I met Harvey at an industry party. The following day, my agent said he wanted to see me for a general meeting. The location was set for his hotel room. I wasn’t comfortable with going to his room & said so. The following day, we sat down with an assistant in the hotel restaurant. He bullshit me for 5 minutes re: movies he could put me in, then asked the assistant to excuse us. As she walked away, he said, "I know you were feeling what I was feeling when we met the other night” and then regaled me with offers of a lavish life filled with trips around the world on private planes etc. IF I would be his girlfriend. Or, “We could just keep this professional.” All I knew was not to offend this very powerful man and to get out of the situation as quickly as possible. I told him while flattered, I'd like to keep things professional. He said “Fine. I trust you won't tell anyone about this.” I said “Of course not. Thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me,” - the only way I could think to shut it down gracefully and excuse myself. I immediately told my agent what happened. We marveled at his audacity, reinforced my instinct not to offend him & laughed at how glad I was to get out of there. Neither of us were that surprised as this wasn’t far off from the day-to-day bullshit of being an actress. I'm sorry for obliging his orders to be complicit in protecting his behavior, which he obviously knew was wrong or he wouldn’t have asked me not to tell anyone in the first place. For making him feel ok about the gross things he was saying and that I felt my only route was to say I was flattered. For not insisting that my reps never allow anyone to take a meeting in a hotel room (with him or anyone else), because I honestly don’t know what might have happened if I’d just showed up as originally scheduled. I am appalled for all the women being told these occurrences are in any way their fault. No more Harvey Weinstein in Hollywood does not solve the problem but maybe the more voices sharing their stories and adding support to the countless women and men who have suffered through abuse of power, the less it will be tolerated.

A post shared by Minka Kelly (@minkakelly) on

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