Perkins also challenged the idea that Weinstein’s alleged victims should have known what they were signing up for if they visited him in a hotel room. (Many of the women who have accused the film executive of harassment and assault report being invited to meet him at a hotel, ostensibly for professional reasons.)

“Everybody now says, ‘Why did everyone go to his hotel room?’ [But] it wasn’t as simple as that,” Perkins said. “Everybody went to his hotel. This is where he did business. It wasn’t in his bedroom; it was in his suite. You had top agents, top movie stars, male and female, coming in hourly for meetings.”

Perkins said Weinstein would become very angry if people refused to take those meetings. “With Harvey there was no such word as ‘no’ and that’s really the crux of the matter,” she said.

She also disputed the idea that Weinstein suffers from sex addiction. The producer reportedly checked himself into a live-in clinic for sex addiction shortly after the first investigations into his abusive behaviour were published, although he is believed to have checked out after just one week.

“I don’t think he’s a sex addict. He’s a power addict,” said Perkins. “Everything that drove him was about dominance with men and women. He put an enormous amount of energy into humiliating men and an enormous amount of energy into getting women to submit. That was what drove him: his overarching need for power.”

Weinstein’s former assistant speaks out about dangers of non-disclosure agreements