Rose McGowan accused Ben Affleck of lying about his knowledge of sexual harassment by Harvey Weinstein in a Twitter message on Tuesday.
The actress wrote that Affleck had told her, “I told him to stop doing that!” at the press conference which she “was made to go to after assault.”
“You said that to my face,” McGowan wrote. “You lie.”
“I am saying exactly that,” the actress wrote to the Times.
New York Times and The New Yorker published bombshell investigative reports on decades of alleged sexual assault by Weinstein, a Hollywood mogul with the power to make or break a career.
Weinstein was fired from his the company he co-founded after the Times article sent shockwaves through Hollywood. Since then, Hollywood actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie have come forward to reveal that Weinstein assaulted them.
Weinstein played a role in making Affleck a Hollywood star. Affleck appeared in the 1997 movie “Good Will Hunting” with Weinstein’s help, according to the Times.
In her message, McGowan was addressing the statement Affleck issued on Oct. 10, several days after the Times article was published.
“I am saddened and angry that a man I worked with used his position of power to intimidate, sexually harass and manipulate women over decades. The additional allegations of assault I read this morning made me sick.” Affleck wrote, referencing accusations of rape by several women in the New Yorker article.
“We must support those who come forward,” he continued, and “condemn this type of behavior when we see it.”
Affleck and McGowan appeared in two films together in 1997 and 1998, around the time that McGowan settled a lawsuit for $100,000 with Weinstein over a sexual assault in a hotel room during the Sundance Film Festival.
McGowan was one of at least eight women who settled lawsuits with Weinstein over the course of three decades, according to the Times.
“This type of predation happens behind closed doors and out of public view,” Damon said. “If there was ever an event that I was at, and Harvey was doing this kind of thing and I didn’t see it, then I am so deeply sorry, because I would have stopped it.”