Annabella Sciorra felt like she was having a "seizure" when Harvey Weinstein allegedly raped her.
Annabella Sciorra
The 'Sopranos' star was reduced to tears when she detailed the alleged encounter between her and the 67-year-old movie producer, which she has claimed took place in a Manhattan apartment in 1993, when she appeared in court in New York city on Thursday (23.01.20).
She told the jury: "I was punching him, I was kicking him, I was just trying to get him away from me and he took my hands and put my hands over my head to hold me back.
"I didn't have very much fight left inside me.
"My body shut down. It was just so disgusting that my body started to shake in a way that was very unusual. I didn't even know what was happening. It was like a seizure or something."
The 59-year-old actress claimed Weinstein raped her and then ejaculated onto her leg and nightgown, before he started to perform oral sex on her without her consent.
Sciorra said she kept the disturbing encounter to herself for a very long time and began abusing alcohol and cutting herself to help her deal with the pain she felt following the incident.
She explained: "I didn't feel good. And I didn't want to go out, and so I spent a lot of time inside."
The 'Jungle Fever' star later confronted Weinstein over the alleged rape in the apartment but claimed the producer became "menacing" and told her to keep it to herself.
She said: "I told him how I woke up and that I blacked out and fainted. He said, 'That's what all the nice Catholic girls (say).' ... His eyes were black, and I thought he was going to hit me right there.
"It was threatening and I was afraid of him."
But Weinstein's lawyer Damon Cheronis shut down Sciorra's account and said that the actress had described the encounter with Weinstein to a friend in a very different way.
He said: "You're going to hear that she admitted to doing a crazy thing. She didn't describe it as rape. It follows the narrative of the scary Harvey Weinstein who appeared in an apartment in Gramercy. That didn't happen, members of the jury."
Sciorra - who first went public with her accusations in 2017 - was the second witness to be called to the stand by the prosecution in the criminal trial against the movie producer.
Weinstein faces five felony charges - including predatory sexual assault and rape - but he has pleaded not guilty and has denied all accusations of nonconsensual sex.
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