Julia Ormond was one of the most brilliant actresses in cinema in the mid-nineties. The British performer had begun her career in 1989 and by 1994 she was already filming her most famous film, Legends of Passion, alongside Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins. The following year, she starred with Richard Gere and Sean Connery in The First Knight, and Sabrina, opposite Harrison Ford. She was hailed as the new Julia Roberts, but when it seemed that Hollywood was giving up on her, the star faded.
Now, Julia, 58, has decided to bring to light an episode in her life that probably marked her destiny. The actress has filed a lawsuit before the New York Supreme Court against the predator Harvey Weinstein. In her letter, she alleges that the former Hollywood producer, currently in prison, abused her after a work dinner in 1995, when she was 30 years old.
She describes meeting him for what she believed was a working dinner after meeting him for the first time the previous year at the Savoy Hotel in London. After drinking enough to agree to take him to her apartment, Ormond says he seduced her into giving him a massage, climbed on top of her, masturbated her, stripped her naked, and forced her to perform oral sex on him. .
Ormond has extended the lawsuit to the talent company CAA, which represented her at the time, and to The Walt Disney Company – owners of Miramax, a company that Weinstein founded with his brother – since they knew of the producer's behavior and did nothing to protect her. .
According to his story, he informed his then agents Bryan Lourd and Kevin Huvane – today co-presidents of CAA – of what had happened with Weinstein and they advised him not to say anything and protected him. In the legal document obtained by the specialized media Variety, neither Lourd nor Huvane appear as defendants, but they are mentioned repeatedly throughout the lawsuit as Ormond's representatives at that time.
The lawsuit details that both CAA men and Weinstein's employees at Miramax and Disney were perfectly aware of the former producer's dark background. “Blatantly, none of these prominent companies warned Ormond that Weinstein had a history of assaulting women because he was too important, too powerful, and made them too much money,” the brief states. The actress confesses that she went from earning $3.5 million per film to Weinstein putting her “on the Hollywood blacklist” in the 90s.
Although the alleged assault happened almost 30 years ago, Ormond can take legal action thanks to the Adult Survivors Act, which New York approved in 2022 as a result of the movement.
The wave of accusations against the powerful former producer began in 2015, when some actresses began to raise their voices about his abuses. But Weinstein did not see his career collapse until October 2017, when The New York Times and days later The New Yorker magazine uncovered a history of sexual harassment perpetuated by the producer for decades.
