“I saw a bit of film of Harvey walking with two sticks and you think, ‘Well…’ I knew Harvey and I knew him well and worked with him, and I had none of that experience – very fortunately for me,” she said.
Weinstein has looked increasingly frail at court appearances since his diagnosis with chronic myeloid leukaemia last year, NBC News reported.
In a statement through his spokesperson, Weinstein told TMZ he has “always been fond” of Dench and was grateful for her “kind words”.
“She is an extraordinary person who played an important role in my career. I’ve now spent more than six years and a half years incarcerated, including a year and a half in Rikers, which counts as double time…”
More than 80 sexual misconduct allegations against Weinstein kick-started the MeToo movement in 2017 and resulted in his facing multiple criminal charges.
At the time, Dench condemned her former producer’s alleged sexual offending, telling Newsweek she was sympathetic to the women who had come forward.
“Whilst there is no doubt that Harvey Weinstein has helped and championed my film career for the past 20 years, I was completely unaware of these offences which are, of course, horrifying, and I offer my sympathy to those who have suffered and wholehearted support to those who have spoken out.”
The actress also referenced her “exonerated” friend Kevin Spacey, and how the pair still sent text exchanges, Deadline reported.
Spacey was found not liable by a New York court in 2022 and acquitted of a criminal trial by a UK court in 2023.
Next year, he will face three more claims of sexual assault in London’s High Court.
Dench previously told The Radio Times she couldn’t “approve” of the actor being cut from films in response to the allegations, referring to his replacement by Christopher Plummer in All the Money in the World.
“Are we to do that throughout history? Are we to go back throughout history and anyone who has misbehaved in any way, or who has broken the law, or who has committed some kind of offence, are they always going to be cut out? Are we going to extrude them from our history?”
The pair became friends on the set of 2001’s The Shipping News as Spacey supported Dench through the death of her husband of 30 years, Michael Williams.
“I don’t know about the conditions of it, but nevertheless, he is, and was, a most wonderful actor. I can’t imagine what he is doing now. And a good friend.”
