Dame Judi Dench thinks disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein deserves forgiveness.
The decorated English actor told the U.K.’s Radio Times she sympathized with the convicted sex offender, saying he was never inappropriate with her during their professional relationship.
Despite allegations of sexual misconduct from over 100 women, Dench said, “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.”
While the interview did note that the Oscar-winning actor expressed “empathy for his victims,” the piece did not go into any more details.
“I imagine he’s done his time,” Dench went on about Weinstein, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison for rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration in California in 2023, and is also awaiting retrial on New York sex crime charges which were overturned in 2024.
“I don’t know, to me it’s personal – forgiveness,” she trailed off, prompting the outlet to drop the topic.
Dench took a much different tone in October 2017, when she released a statement in response to extensive allegations detailed in a New York Times investigation and a Ronan Farrow exposé published by The New Yorker.
“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 offenses which are, of course, horrifying,” she said at the time. “I offer my sympathy to those who have suffered, and wholehearted support to those who have spoken out.”