Actor Brad Pitt and Gwyenth Paltrow break from filming ‘The Devil’s Own’ on February 23, 1996 in New York City. (Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage)

1995: Before Gwyneth Paltrow was a big-name actress, she was working on smaller projects for Miramax Films – the production company Harvey Weinstein owned. It’s been well documented Weinstein hit on Paltrow and attempted to intimidate her with his power and the threat to destroy her career should she not comply with what he wanted. Overnight, the actress, now, 45, openly talked to Howard Stern about the experience.

“We had one instance in a hotel room … where he made a pass at me,” Paltrow told Stern. “It was out of the blue and I’ll tell you, I had been having the most incredible experience at Miramax. I was blindsided.”

A young Paltrow refused Weinstein’s advances and then told her then-boyfriend Brad Pitt about it. At the 1995 Broadway premiere of Hamlet, Pitt confronted Weinstein face-to-face and told him if he ever touched her again, he’d be sorry. “It was like the equivalent of throwing him against the wall,” Paltrow said. “It was so fantastic because what he did was, he leveraged his fame and power to protect me at a time when I didn’t have fame or power yet.”

“Harvey was never inappropriate with me again. Ever,” she continued. “Power was his currency and he knew when to, you know, give you something and take it away. I did put it behind me but … our professional relationship was pretty fraught at times.”