A Kiwi model who is part of a class-action lawsuit against disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein says she feels "forced" to take her part of an NZ$38 million settlement.
Zoe Brock is one of more than 80 women who have spoken out against Weinstein after the explosive New York Times piece which formed the genesis of the #MeToo movement.
She says Weinstein also tried to prey on her in 1997 when she was 23, and working as a model trying to transition into acting.
Ms Brock said Weinstein invited her to his hotel room, where she found him alone, naked and asking for a massage.
She then locked herself in the bathroom and was soon after taken to another hotel by Weinsteins' assistant.
"I was barricaded in a bathroom, terrified for my life and yelling at him," Ms Brock said.
Weinstein is due to stand trial over the numerous accusations in less than a month, Weinsteins' legal team reached a tentative settlement with more than 30 women, including Ms Brock.
Speaking this morning to TVNZ1's Breakfast programme, Ms Brock said it had been and "exhausting" two years since she made her accusation, and that she now feels forced into taking the settlement money.
"I certainly didn't understand when I blurted out the truth two years ago how heavy it was going to be, how long this was going to take and how traumatic it was going to be," Ms Brock said.
"There's just no escape, every time you turn on a TV or look at a paper there's Harvey.
"When you're forced to sort of speak about it over and over and over again it's definitely re-traumatising.
"Then when you expect there'd be repercussions and accountability for someone doing something horrible to so many people, and there is very little, then that is almost more traumatising again."
The tentative settlement would be paid out by Weinsteins' insurance company, rather than out of his own personal wealth, and Ms Brock said she has been dealing with the negotiations for months.
He already entered the same plea to raping a woman in 2013 and forcible sex on another in 2006. (Source: Other)
"I have been very vocal about how unhappy I am about it with my legal team - they have been very careful in every email and in every interview to say that no one is being forced into this settlement," she said.
"But I feel forced - I feel extremely forced. I feel like I don't have a choice.
"If we take a settlement and we walk away from the class-action suit that we have brought, I can't file any suit against him again - it's like a double jeopardy in America - you cannot re-file the same case.
"In essence, by walking away from that, I can't bring it by myself - I'm literally over a barrel.
"I have a choice of either walking away from this settlement and taking nothing and taking a moral stand, because I think it sucks - which I really do think that it sucks, it's a disaster - or I take the money and object strongly, which I plan on doing."
Ms Brock said Weinstein is a "clear cut case of a narcissist", and said she was stunned by a recent interview he had done with the New York Post in which he claimed he had done so much for female actors by casting them in his films.
"It was offensive, especially while he was lying there in his marble-floored hospital suite with his original art on the wall and his linen sheets, while he's also complaining about his financial situation and wanting to declare bankruptcy," Ms Brock said.
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Ms Brock said Weinstein "might get off and he might try to make a comeback".
"I know his brother is already making moves to start a new production company," she said.
Ms Brock ended her interview with a powerful plea to other women who have had encounters with Weinstein to speak out.
"In case there is anyone else out there who wants to get the courage to speak out about Harvey Weinstein - we know you're out there," she said.
"We know that there are probably hundreds of you who have got stories way worse than mine, and if they happened within the statute of limitations then please, dear God, I implore you to come forward, because we cannot let this man come off.
"If you worked for him, if you worked with him, if you're a man or a woman and you know what he did and you can be a witness at his criminal trial and make sure that he goes to jail, then please, please, I beg you to come forward, I really do, wherever you are in the world."
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