A number of people reported confrontations with accused sexual predator Harvey Weinstein after the embattled filmmaker made an appearance at a New York City bar Wednesday night.
Weinstein, who has made rare public appearances since 2017 articles in The New York Times and New Yorker chronicled numerous allegations of sexual misconduct against him, attended a private event at Downtime bar in the East Village.
His representatives confirmed to NBC News that Weinstein was in the audience at Actors' Hour, a speakeasy-style show dedicated to artists, after numerous accounts popped up on social media Thursday.
"Harvey Weinstein was out with friends enjoying the music and trying to find some solace in his life that has been turned upside down," a spokesman for Weinstein told NBC News. "This scene was uncalled for, downright rude and an example of how due process today is being squashed by the public, trying to take it away in the courtroom too."
A person named Zoe Stuckless posted video of themselves confronting Weinstein at the bar. “Nobody’s going to say anything?” Stuckless is heard screaming while pointing at Weinstein. “I’m going to stand four feet from a f------ rapist and nobody is going to say anything?”
Stuckless, who identifies as nonbinary, wrote that Weinstein was sitting in a booth surrounded by young women.
“In some ways tonight was a horrible, painful reminder of the power a man like Weinstein holds even now,” Stuckless wrote. “It was a reminder that even in this time of relative awareness it is hypnotically easy to be pulled into a culture of silence.”
The 21-year-old actor told NBC News they didn't recognize Weinstein at first and were in complete disbelief because they didn't think he would ever show his face at an event like that. Stuckless said they thought of their own experience with rape and all of the women who spoke out against Weinstein.
"If no one says anything, then I owe it to myself, I owe it to the survivors and to all the women that Harvey has victimized to say something," Stuckless explained.
Stuckless added that they were disappointed in others at the bar who didn't speak out against Weinstein's presence and reflective of the culture of fear that allowed his alleged behavior to persist for years.
"That kind of complacency cannot and should not be allowed to continue," Stuckless said.
Comic Kelly Bachman shared video of herself onstage at the show where she said she had to address the elephant in the room during her set.
"Do we know what that is? Yeah it's Freddy Krueger in the room, if you will," Bachman said. "I didn't know we had to bring our own Mace and rape whistles to Actors' Hour."
After some men in the audience booed her, Bachman responded that she was a rape survivor who never got the chance to confront her attacker.
She later said on her Instagram that the host of the show told her that it wasn't the first time Weinstein appeared at Actors' Hour. Bachman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
Both Bachman and Stuckless said that a male comedian who came on stage next also spoke about Weinstein but praised him instead, including a compliment for his work on the film "Good Will Hunting."
Another woman, comedian Amber Rollo, tweeted that she cursed at Weinstein and a "goon" that was with him called her a "c---." Rollo did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
Downtime made a statement in its Instagram stories Thursday that Actors' Hour rented the bar for the event and had a private guest list.
"Shortly into the evening, one guest began heckling another, causing a disturbance to everyone in attendance," the bar continued. "After several requests to stop were ignored, we kindly asked the heckler to leave."
The bar said that its goal is to create an environment where everyone feels welcome and made a decision in line with maintaining that goal.
Actors' Hour did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
Weinstein is currently facing multiple court cases stemming from allegations of sexual assault and intimidation. He pleaded not guilty to two charges of predatory sexual assault in August connected to testimony from actress Annabella Sciorra, who claims Weinstein barged into her Manhattan apartment and raped her in 1993.
The disgraced movie mogul is also facing five felony charges in New York — two counts of predatory sexual assault, one count of criminal sexual act in the first degree and one count each of first-degree rape and third-degree rape.
Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to those charges as well. He has also repeatedly denied engaging in nonconsensual sex.
Actress Rose McGowan, who has accused Weinstein of rape, filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday alleging that Weinstein and two of his former attorneys engaged in racketeering to silence her and derail her career. Weinstein’s attorney said McGowan is "a publicity seeker looking for money" and her suit is meritless.
CORRECTION (Oct. 25, 2019, 4:15 a.m.): A previous version of this article misspelled the last name of the person who posted video of the confrontation with Weinstein, which is Zoe Stuckless, not Stucklass.
