Actress Mira Sorvino has revealed she received an outpouring of support from fellow Hollywood stars after accusing Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault.
The Oscar-winning star, 50, alleged Weinstein chased her around a room after he started massaging her shoulders in a Toronto hotel room in 1995.
Since her claims in The New Yorker article a torrent of allegations have been made against the movie mogul.
Sorvino has opened up about the reaction she received in going public with her allegations, including an online backlash from internet trolls.
“I usually have a sleepy little Twitter account. One day after the story came out, there were over a million views,” she wrote in a column on The Hollywood Reporter.
“Eight out of 10 comments were an affirmation. Two out of 10, the 20% that were trolls, were quite disturbing. It felt like a gut punch at times,” she added.
However she was also contacted by fellow actresses who offered their support, while some shared their own alleged encounters with Weinstein.
“The day that the story was published, Annabella Sciorra called me and said, ‘Oh my God, Mira, I’ve known you for years…’ and then she said, ‘Harvey raped me.’ I had no idea,” she wrote.
“She was making up her mind about what she wanted to do, and we talked for an hour. It was so horrifying, and I cried for her. Eventually she also gave her story to (New Yorker reporter) Ronan Farrow.”
Sorvino added: “There’s a lot of people who think, ‘You all knew, you kept silent and you could have prevented so many people from being hurt.’
“But I only knew of myself for a while and then was told only by one other young woman about her experience. I’ve known Ashley Judd for years — we did Norma Jean and Marilyn together, apparently after our Harvey incidents.
“We never exchanged notes on this. No one could imagine the serial level of predation that has since become open,” she wrote.
The actress – who won an Oscar for best supporting actress for Weinstein-produced Mighty Aphrodite in 1995 – said she spoke with her minister before going public with the allegation.
“I felt like I may never work again and had to be OK with that. My minister, who happens to be female, thought I had to go forward with my story, and I agreed with her,” she said.
She also said Quentin Tarantino, her boyfriend at the time of the alleged assault, was aware it happened but had thought Weinstein was “just really crushing hard on me”.
Earlier this year Tarantino admitted he knew about an alleged assault involving Sorvino and said he wished he had taken responsibility.
Dozens of actresses, including Rose McGowan, Asia Argento, Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Cara Delevingne have made allegations of harassment and assault against movie mogul Weinstein.
He has denied ever engaging in “non-consensual sexual conduct”.
