Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 16 more years in prison for sex crimes. A Los Angeles court ruled earlier this week. The former film mogul is already in prison for sexual assault and rape. The list of women who have been victims of Weinstein’s assaults is long. Evgeniya Chernyshova also likes it.
The 43-year-old was the first of 44 witnesses to testify at Weinstein’s trial. While most of those affected prefer to remain anonymous, Chernyshova has now spoken about her experiences with Weinstein in an amazingly personal interview with her lawyer, as reported by the “Hollywoodreporter” magazine.
Accordingly, the news of Weinstein’s conviction was a real relief for the mother of three. It was the tip of the iceberg that had been building since 2017. At that time, Chernyshova was working as a model and actress and filed a complaint against the former producer – anonymous at the time. She has since been known as “Jane Doe 1”.
The reason for the ad was the events during the second week of the Oscars in 2013. After Harvey Weinstein and Chernyshova met briefly at an event, she went to her hotel room alone. There she exchanged the dress from the red carpet for a bathrobe – and wanted to end the evening quietly. Harvey Weinstein apparently had other plans.
He called Chernyshova’s room through the front desk and said, “It’s Harvey, we need to talk.” The actress was confused and told him they could talk the next day. A few minutes later there was a knock on her room door. She still remembers his words clearly, as she reports in the interview: “He said, ‘Hey, it’s Harvey Weinstein. Open the door. We need to talk. I’m not going to fuck you, I just need to talk to you’ .”
After a moment’s thought and out of uncertainty, as she puts it today, she opened the door. A step she regrets to this day. Weinstein then sat down in a chair and started talking to her. “It quickly became clear to me that something was wrong,” recalls the former model. So she talked vehemently about her husband and children. She wanted to signal that she wasn’t available.
The actress recalls Weinstein unbuttoning his pants at one point. How she tried to defend herself, but had no chance: “First he raped me in the bedroom, then he dragged me into the bathroom and continued from there,” she says. After that he got dressed and left. “I felt very, very dirty and thought I was going to die.”
The rape was followed by depression, addiction problems, and self-loathing. Only a conversation with her then 16-year-old daughter about a sexual assault in 2017 brought about a change. Both made a pact: they wanted to report the crimes and no longer remain silent. So Chernyshova went to the police and reported Weinstein. It didn’t take long for it to become clear that she wasn’t the only one affected. The rest is history. For Chernyshova it is one with a happy ending.
Today she runs a successful florist shop in Beverly Hills and has come to terms with the events of ten years ago. But why is she breaking her silence right now and stepping out of anonymity? “If I keep hiding, there’s nothing I can do,” she says in the tearful interview. And Chernyshova wants to save as many women as possible from the experience she went through with Weinstein.
