Harvey Weinstein Claims Women Who Spoke Out About Him ‘Knew Exactly What Was Expected’

In his first major interview since his arrest, Harvey Weinstein argued that some of his accusers were aware of what he expected during meetings with him.

“I had lots of people come see me. But there were some women who knew exactly what was expected,” the disgraced movie mogul, 73, said during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published on Tuesday, March 9.

“Maybe they felt bad later or they regretted it. Maybe they saw an opportunity for a payout,” he continued. “But not all of them were as naive as they liked to pretend.”

Weinstein, who is currently being held at Rikers Island in New York, went on to use examples from two of the cases against him.

“Look at the last case. I lost Miriam Haley. But I was not guilty on Kaja Sokola, who said I raped her,” he explained. “We won because in her diary she wrote about four men who assaulted her. But the one line she wrote about me in her diary was that Harvey disappointed me. Harvey disappointed her because I didn’t make her a star. And a lot of these women were actresses and they didn’t get what they wanted.”

When the interviewer, Maer Roshan, pointed out the significant power imbalance between himself and the 20-year-old Sokola, Weinstein admitted that he “can be scary and difficult.”

“But that’s still a long way from sexual assault. Over-flirtation, ridiculous situations. Bad and stupid behavior. Yes,” Weinstein added. “But I didn’t push anybody. I didn’t physically move anybody. I didn’t do that, Maer. And I’ve taken lie detectors to prove it.”

Weinstein was convicted of sex crimes in California in 2022 and in a 2025 New York retrial after his original 2020 conviction was overturned on appeal.