'Accusing Weinstein ended my career': Former assistant says she ended up training horses in Central America after legal fight with shamed media mogul left HER reputation in tatters
- Zelda Perkins worked as an assistant for Harvey Weinstein in the late Nineties
- She quit and decided to take legal action after a woman said he had raped her
- But she found herself unable to get any work afterward because her reputation was 'suspect', and she ended up training horses in Central America
- Perkins was told to sign a nondisclosure agreement when kept her silent for 19 years before she decided to speak out as other accusers came forward
A former assistant to Harvey Weinstein has told how her career ended after she accused the media mogul of sexual assault because it ruined her reputation.
Zelda Perkins said she was viewed as 'suspect' by potential new employers after a long and exhausting legal fight with Miramax which ended with her signing an nondisclosure agreement in return for £125,000.
Finding that she could no longer work in London, where she was based before she made her allegations, Ms Perkins ended up in Central America training horses.
Zelda Perkins has recalled how accusing Harvey Weinstein of sexual abuse effectively ruined her career as an assistant, and left her 'broken and disillusioned'
Perkins went after Weinstein in 1998 following the Venice Film Festival (pictured, the mogul at the event) after she says a colleague confessed that the media mogul had tried to rape her
She told BBC Newsnight: 'When you've spent a month of your life fighting with every ounce of your strength to stop a predator, to have to face that kind of environment afterwards was hard.
'I couldn't stay in the industry at that point.'
Ms Perkins has previously told how Weinstein appeared in his underwear in front of her and offered her a nude massage while the two were alone in his hotel room, which she referred to as 'his office'.
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He would also parade around naked and force her to sit beside the tub as he bathed, she said.
While she did not initially feel the need to complain, it was after a colleague claimed that Weinstein had tried to rape her during the 1998 Venice Film Festival that she acted.
She said her first move was to confront Weinstein personally, who swore 'on the lives of his wife and children' that it had never happened, but failed to convince her.
Perkins said her own legal team advised her that going after Weinstein would 'destroy' her, and that signing a nondisclosure agreement was the best way forward
After that she quit alongside her colleague and the pair acquired a legal team to go after him. It was then, she says, that the real trauma started.
'I could deal with Harvey - he was unpleasant, difficult man, but I had ways of dealing with him,' she told the BBC.
'What I couldn't deal with, what I had no equipment for, was the legal system.
'There was no recourse, it seemed, and that was really shocking and very frightening, to discover that the law couldn't help me.'
She recalls how her lawyers told her she would be 'destroyed' taking Weinstein to court, and presented a damages settlement as the only reasonable outcome.
At first she was insistent that no money would change hands, but after being told that a financial threat was the only way to bring Miramax to the table, she agreed.
She then resolved to force Weinstein to reform using the agreement, insisting that he attend therapy with her present for the first session, that he be fired if another complaint was made, and that Miramax put a proper sex complaints policy in place.
It was only after dozens of women and prominent Hollywood figures came forward to accuse Weinstein that Ms Perkins said she felt able to breach that agreement and speak out
On her end the agreement prohibited her from talking to anybody about her time at Miramax. She was even forbidden from speaking to a therapist without them obtaining an agreement of their own.
She was also barred from keeping a copy of the agreement, which she eventually signed after being left 'broken and disillusioned' with the legal process.
In reality she has no idea whether Weinstein kept up his end of the deal, she said.
It was only after dozens of other women, including prominent Hollywood figures, came forward with allegations against Weinstein that she decided to break that agreement and speak out.
Asked whether she believes that will make a difference, she said 2017 has been a 'watershed year' which she believes will bring lasting change.
'If I can make one good thing happen out of something as horrific as all the damage that Harvey has caused, that makes this year a fantastic year for me,' she added.
Weinstein categorically denies any allegations of non-consensual sex.
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