Angelina Jolie turned down a role for Oscar-nominated film The Aviator because she didn’t want to work with convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein.

In a Guardian interview on her humanitarian work and new book with Amnesty International, Know Your Rights and Claim Them, the star discusses her divorce and current custody fight with Brad Pitt. She also discusses her previous interactions with Harvey Weinstein, claiming that his alleged sexual harassment of her while shooting on the 1998 film Playing by Heart was “beyond a pass.”

Jolie spoke about her own struggles to speak for herself while discussing the book and its topics.

“I started working really young to help [my mother] pay bills and stuff. And I wasn’t aware of how I deserved to be treated as a young girl and a human being. I didn’t feel I was born with these rights and protections.”

“If you get yourself out of the room, you think he attempted but didn’t, right? The truth is that the attempt and the experience of the attempt is an assault,” she explains, adding that “it was beyond a pass.” “It was something I had to escape. I stayed away and warned people about him. I remember telling Jonny [Lee Miller], my first husband, who was great about it, to spread the word to other guys – don’t let girls go alone with him.”

She also revealed that she declined a part in the 2004 picture The Aviator because Weinstein was engaged in the production.

“I was asked to do The Aviator, but I said no because he was involved. I never associated or worked with him again. It was hard for me when Brad did,” she said.

Pitt appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, which was co-produced by the Weinstein Company, and Jolie was married to him from 2014 until she filed for divorce in 2016. In 2012, Jolie’s then-husband requested Weinstein to produce his thriller, Killing Them Softly, which was released by the Weinstein Company.

“We fought about it. Of course it hurt,” she told the outlet.  She was also said to have stayed away from the film’s promotional events.

A representative for Weinstein claims that after the Aviator, sometime around 2007 or 2008, Jolie came to London and met with Weinstein and Anthony Minghella to ask if she could be on the film I Don’t Know How She Does It. The rep adds that per Weinsten, there was never an assault, and never an attempt to assault. Jolie’s charges, according to the rep, are blatantly false and clickbait PR.

Weinstein has been accused of sexually harassing and abusing women by Jolie and other women. Gwyneth Paltrow said in a 2017 article by The New York Times that Weinstein recruited her to act in the 1996 film “Emma” and then sexually assaulted her. Paltrow turned down his attempts and informed her then-boyfriend, Brad Pitt, about the event.

“I had a bad experience with Harvey Weinstein in my youth, and as a result, chose never to work with him again and warn others when they did. This behavior towards women in any field, any country is unacceptable,” Jolie told the publication.

Weinstein and his brother Bob had made a lasting imprint on Hollywood before the charges arose in 2017.

Pitt addressed why he stood up to the movie mogul and supported Paltrow in a September 2019 interview with CNN.

“I just wanted to make sure nothing was going to happen further, because she [Paltrow] was going to do two films. I think the interesting thing is that we, Hollywood specifically, but the workplace, men and women’s dynamics is being recalibrated, recalibrated in a very good way that is long overdue. And I do think that’s an important story to tell,” Pitt said.

Weinstein was found guilty of sexual assault and rape and was sentenced to 23 years in jail. He was extradited from New York to Los Angeles in July to face new allegations of sexual assault. He has entered a not guilty plea.