Actress Heather Graham has spoken out about an encounter she had with Harvey Weinstein in the early 2000s in which he implied she would need to have s^x with him to be cast in one of his movies.

The revelation came following the publication of two new exposés alleging further s^xual harassment and assault by the former movie mogul.

Speaking exclusively to Variety, Graham said that during a meeting in his office, Weinstein offered her a choice of scripts for a movie role.

She said: “There was no explicit mention that to star in one of those films I had to sleep with him, but the subtext was there.”

Graham added that Weinstein later invited her to a follow-up meeting at his hotel, but she declined, feeling uncomfortable about the situation.

Graham has said that the situation left her feeling uneasy and she believes there may be others who have similarly been affected by “gray areas” of s^xual harassment in the workplace.

The actress said she was now hoping that this moment could be the catalyst for a dialogue to redefine what constitutes s^xual harassment, adding that she wanted women to feel empowered to speak out when they felt uncomfortable.

“I hope that dialogue covers the gray areas where we ask ourselves, ‘Did what I think happened just happen?’ and that we are no longer shamed into feeling that we should grow a thicker skin,” she said.

The actress explained that she had not spoken out before now because she felt ashamed and had not wanted to risk damaging her career.

However, she said that she now feels guilty for not having done so earlier.

“If I had spoken up a decade ago, would I have saved countless women from the same experience I had or worse?” she asked.

Graham said that she believed that some women were put off speaking out because they did not want to be “attacked for reading into something that may or may not have been there”.

Similarly, they might fear being seen as “weak” in a male-dominated industry or risk losing work by being “defined as a difficult woman”.

She said that the revelations of harassment and assault by Weinstein, and the fact that the victims were now being heard, meant that “the world is starting to change for the better”.

Meanwhile, further allegations against Weinstein continue to emerge.

Yesterday, a report in The New Yorker claimed that the producer had hired intelligence agencies to investigate those who had made allegations against him.

The report also alleged that Weinstein had taken measures to suppress allegations of s^xual misconduct over many years.

A statement from his spokesperson has said that he “has begun counseling, has listened to the community and is pursuing a better path”.

On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that a number of actresses, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, had accused Weinstein of s^xual harassment.

Paltrow alleged that the producer had made unwanted advances towards her in a hotel room when she was 22 years old.

Jolie said that Weinstein had made “unwanted advances” towards her in a hotel room during the release of the film Playing by Heart in 1998. Both actresses declined to comment further.