Actress Mira Sorvino, who has been one of the most vocal voices in the #MeToo movement, says she is a survivor of rape.
Sorvino made the revelation during a press conference on Wednesday, alongside New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, in an effort to encourage the state legislature to eliminate New York’s statute of limitations on rape in the 2nd and 3rd degrees and pass additional sexual harassment protections before the end of the legislative session next week.
“This whole #MeToo [movement] this has been wonderful, but it has been highly traumatizing for me on a personal level just because I have had to revisit my past and my demons in a way that I really had not fully explored… I had not really dealt with past traumas,” Sorvino said tearfully. “I had not really sought out the help I needed, so this past year and a half has been a very interesting and hard and wonderful time for me. But 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.”
She went on to add, “I have never said that last part ever in public because it is impossible sometimes to share these sort of things. I’m doing it here to try and help because there are all these survivors out there right now who need justice, who need to feel that they can take the time they need to sort through the trauma, to sort through the shame, because I can tell you in situations of second degree rape, which is what mine would constitute… You feel shame. You feel somehow that it was your fault. You feel 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, but like that you somehow got yourself into this situation, and growing up as I did, in a Christian home, with a very strong, almost fundamentalist mother and a patriarchal Italian family, there is still a shame to anything sexual being public, so you don’t want to air your dirty laundry to other people, even if it was forced upon you.”
Sorvino did not detail when the assault occurred or identify the rapist.
In response to CNN’s request for comment on Sorvino reiterating her harassment allegation against Harvey Weinstein, which she first made in an interview with the New Yorker in 2017, a representative for the former film producer said, “Ms. Sorvino’s unfounded accusation of any physical assault or battery, or sexual contact at all by Mr. Weinstein is not only complete and utter nonsense, but it is dismissed by her own words, conversations and previous professional relationship with Mr. Weinstein.”
Sorvino is one of more than 80 women who have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct. She has said Weinstein made unwanted sexual advances towards her when they worked on a project together in 1995.
In the wake of Sorvino’s allegation, “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson claimed that Weinstein told him not to cast Sorvino in the franchise, allegedly calling her a “nightmare.” He also allegedly told Jackson not to hire actress Ashley Judd who is in the midst of suing Weinstein for defamation.
A Weinstein representative has denied that he attempted to damage her career.
CNN has reached out to Sorvino’s representative for additional comment.
CNN’s Elizabeth Joseph and Emily Bass contributed to this report.
