Montreal actress calls Weinstein ruling 'discouraging' but not surprising

A Montreal actress, who has previously detailed incidents she had with disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, says a New York Court of Appeals decision overturning his 2020 rape conviction is 'discouraging' but not surprising.

"Bombshell, indeed," Montreal actress Erika Rosenbaum said of the New York Court of Appeals decision throwing out the conviction of disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

Rosenbaum is among the Silence Breakers, a group of women who came forward after allegations of sexual assault and harassment first surfaced against Weinstein in 2017.

"It is a profoundly discouraging development but not a surprising one, unfortunately," she says. "The legal system as it is, is just not built to convict and so survivors go out on a limb and tell their stories and re-traumatize themselves for the sake of these trials, and then something like this happens. It will certainly cost a great deal to tell those stories all over again."

The Montreal native was in her twenties, dreaming of landing a big role, and going back and forth between her home and Hollywood auditions, when she met Weinstein at a party in Los Angeles knowing he was the man many called the "star maker."

In 2017, she broke her silence, detailing three separate incidents during encounters with Weinstein.

She says the ruling is "unfortunate" because many of the women who stepped forward were willing to stand up in court, despite the re-traumatization inflicted by revisiting these moments, because they wanted to create change and do the right thing.

"I was willing to share my story to lend to the predatory story that this particular character has proven," she says. "It is very hard to understand why we were asked to do that by lawyers, and the trial judge allowed it, and now this is the thing that is allowing this particular accusation to be overturned, it is very disconcerting."