Lupita Nyong'o Came Forward With a Powerful Statement About Harvey Weinstein

Lupita Nyong'o has decided to come forward with the details of her upsetting encounters with Harvey Weinstein. The Oscar-winning actress wrote a powerful op-ed for The New York Times, admitting that the recent controversy has triggered her own traumatic memories. 

"I had shelved my experience with Harvey far in the recesses of my mind, joining in the conspiracy of silence that has allowed this predator to prowl for so many years," Nyong'o began. "But now that this is being discussed openly, I have not been able to avoid the memories resurfacing. I have felt sick in the pit of my stomach. I have felt such a flare of rage that the experience I recount below was not a unique incident with me, but rather part of a sinister pattern of behavior."

Nyong'o went on to recount incidents that seem to be in line with other testimonies about Weinstein's behavior. The disgraced producer pushed alcoholic drinks on the actress, invited her to his bedroom and offered to give her a massage, and invited her to dinner at a hotel — only to reveal that he'd booked a room for the two of them upstairs.

"Now that we are speaking, let us never shut up about this kind of thing," Nyong'o concluded. "I speak up to make certain that this is not the kind of misconduct that deserves a second chance. I speak up to contribute to the end of the conspiracy of silence."

Quentin Tarantino also spoke about Weinstein this week, and regretfully admitted to being complicit in the kind of silence Nyong'o referred to. Though Tarantino had heard of Weinstein's troubling behavior around certain actresses, including his own ex-girlfriend Mira Sorvino, "what I did was marginalize the incidents,” he told The New York Times. “Anything I say now will sound like a crappy excuse.”

Taratino also said: "I wish I had taken responsibility for what I heard. If I had done the work I should have done then, I would have had to not work with him."