Over the last few weeks, it’s become depressingly, increasingly clear that few things aided Harvey Weinstein in his alleged campaign to harass or sexually intimidate vast numbers of Hollywood women more than silence. Silence from friends who willfully looked away from things they didn’t want to see. Silence from a community afraid of Weinstein’s wrath. And silence backed up by the force of law, in the form of the settlements and non-disclosure agreements he surrounded himself with like a fortress.
Today, “select members of The Weinstein Co. staff” have asked to be released by the company from their NDAs, the better to discuss the company’s culture, and what working for Weinstein was like. In a statement to The New Yorker, the unnamed staffers contend that, while they knew their boss was “manipulative” and a “womanizer,” they never realized “we were working for a serial sexual predator,” and question whether the “culture of silence” built around their NDAs helped undermine “those who might’ve spoken out.”
The staffers ended their statement with message of support for everyone who’s come forward with stories of Weinstein’s alleged harassment, as well as a demand for “radical transparency” from The Weinstein Co. and its board. The letter finishes with a calling for a clearing of the company’s accounts, bluntly stating, “anyone who had specific knowledge of non-consensual, predatory behavior must go.”