Harvey Weinstein Confronted At Comedy Event
CABRERA: Harvey Weinstein trip to a comedy show ends in a Me Too confrontation that's gone viral. CNN's Brynn Gingras reports.</s>ZOE STUCKLESS, ACTRESS: Nobody's going to say anything, nobody's really going to say anything.</s>BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 21-year-old, Zoe Stuckless, enraged at the sight of Harvey Weinstein at a private event in New York City.</s>STUCKLESS: I'll get out of here and that's fine. I am happy to leave. But nobody is going to say anything.</s>GINGRAS: And unleashing their fury at the crowd.</s>STUCKLESS: I'm going to stand four feet from a -- rapist and nobody is going to say anything.</s>GINGRAS: Weinstein among those in attendance at Actor's Hour, a monthly event in New York City that's dedicated to artists. He's accused of sexual misconduct by more than 80 women and set to go to trial on sexual assault charges in January. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty in the criminal case and maintains the sexual encounters he's had with women have been consensual. Stuckless told CNN they needed to confront the disgraced movie mogul after other people in the room seemed to welcome him being there. "I kept thinking about the fact that we were in a room full of young artists, young women creating art and being vulnerable on the stage and this was the very community that Weinstein was able to terrorize for so many years." The video shows Weinstein listened to Stuckless but didn't react. In a statement provided to CNN through his spokesperson Weinstein said, quote, "I am happy to address anyone's questions. We should all be offered the courtesy to voice opinions and be heard and to even get answers. I am glad we all still have these rights." Stuckless wasn't alone in the protest. Comedian, Kelly Bachman, who says she is a rape survivor, addressed the, quote, elephant in the room during her act calling Weinstein, Freddy Krueger.</s>KELLY BACHMAN, COMEDIAN: I didn't know that we have to bring our own mace and rape whistles to Actor's Hour.</s>GINGRAS: Some guests booed Bachman, even told her to shut up.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shut up.</s>GINGRAS: But she kept going.</s>BACHMAN: I've been raped surprisingly by no one in this room but I've never got to confront those guys. Just a general</s>GINGRAS: Bachman walked out of the club when Stuckless was asked to leave by the venue. It's unclear whether Weinstein was invited to the private event. The event organizer told CNN, "I am deeply saddened that his presence was not only a trigger point for some attendees but that some women ultimately felt unsafe when a safe environment is what I set out to create for the acting community."</s>CABRERA: Our thanks to Brynn Gingras for that report. With us now is Kelly Bachman, the comedian you saw confronting Weinstein from the stage. Thanks so much for being here, Kelly.</s>BACHMAN: Thanks for having me.</s>CABRERA: What's it like to watch that back?</s>BACHMAN: It's very surreal. It happened on Wednesday night and there's been such an outpour of support since then that I haven't really re-watched the video in a while. So it was just kind of surreal to think how recently that happened.</s>CABRERA: When you first saw Weinstein sitting there, what was your first thought?</s>BACHMAN: Shock. I was just -- I did a double take, triple take. Like is this really Harvey Weinstein? I went around and asked people, like every person I could find, I was like, "Is that really Harvey Weinstein? Is that Harvey Weinstein?" And some people were, like, "Yes. Yes, it is." And others were as shocked as me. But I found out pretty quickly that he was invited and no one was going to ask him to leave. So I was totally shocked by that that he seemed to just be accepted as like a normal presence in this space.</s>CABRERA: You mentioned as we saw to the audience that you are a rape survivor you say.</s>BACHMAN: Yes.</s>CABRERA: And this must have been traumatizing for you.</s>BACHMAN: Yes. It was really triggering and the feeling of being triggered, it feels like your body -- you feel like you're in danger like your body is going into fight or flight protect yourself mode. And seeing him and seeing everyone treat it so normally, I think how people react to it is the most triggering aspect. And so when someone says, shut up, that to me reminds me of being silenced as a rape victim or not believed as a rape victim. And so it's very jarring and I was sitting on the side of the stage just staring at my phone asking friends what I should do. I didn't know if I should leave or should I just do my regular set or do I need to say something. And I was really kind of in a panic. But right before I went up, I decided I definitely needed to say something. I wasn't sure what it was going to be.</s>CABRERA: And that's what we came out, what we saw. You also saw that other audience member who was clearly upset about Weinstein's presence there.</s>BACHMAN: Yes.</s>CABRERA: Let me read you the statement from a spokesperson for Harvey Weinstein. "Harvey Weinstein was out with friends enjoying the music and trying to find some solace in his life that has been turned upside down. This scene was uncalled for, downright rude, and an example of how due process is being squashed by the public, trying to take it away in the courtroom, too." Your response?</s>BACHMAN: I think it's fun that he thinks I'm rude. Like that's fun. It's fun to me. But --</s>CABRERA: You find that a good thing.</s>BACHMAN: Like if Harvey Weinstein thinks I'm rude, like that's, I don't know. That's cool with me. But the due process part, I think that -- whether or not you're invited to a private event for artists has nothing to do with due process. This is about protecting the artists and the space and making them feel as safe as they're supposed to feel to perform. This is supposedly an organization designed to create a space for artists, so bringing someone that has a reputation for destroying the careers of young women and lives to have a room full of young women exposed to that person in a way where it's treated as normal and maybe even welcomed, I think to me that is a completely separate conversation than the conversation about due process.</s>CABRERA: It's hard to believe that the Harvey Weinstein story broke two years ago already.</s>BACHMAN: Yes.</s>CABRERA: What would you say to his accusers who may have watched this video?</s>BACHMAN: I would say, I hope that I said enough because, you know, I really -- I was thinking I was speaking for myself. But, you know, I know I think as a survivor myself, when I think about the idea of standing up for myself to people who have hurt me, it's sort of like you think about what you might say or what you could say or you should have said. And I was really trying to just say something. And in the moment, I really felt like I could have said more and I really felt like I had let down other survivors by not saying more. And to me, I felt like the woman who screamed out was the real hero. I thought she was so brave. And so I would just say to them that I'm -- they're my heroes for speaking out and I hope that I, you know, did right by them in some way.</s>CABRERA: Thank you, Kelly Bachman, for speaking out, for sharing with us tonight. We appreciate it.</s>BACHMAN: Thank you for having me.</s>CABRERA: We'll be right back.