The comedian who confronted Harvey Weinstein at an event for young performers Wednesday night said she "wanted to go so much harder" and "say more" to the disgraced Hollywood movie producer.
Kelly Bachman appeared on BuzzFeed News' morning show, AM to DM, on Friday to discuss what happened Wednesday night when Weinstein turned up with an entourage to watch Actor's Hour, a monthly event "dedicated to artists" at the Downtime bar in Manhattan's Lower East Side.
At the event, Bachman used her set to call out Weinstein's attendance.
"I didn’t know we had to bring our own Mace and rape whistles to Actor's Hour," Bachman said during her set.
Videos from the event on social media show Bachman being booed and two other women being kicked out of the venue for protesting Weinstein's attendance.
Bachman, who said she is a rape survivor, told AM to DM that she "panicked" and felt "triggered" when she said saw Weinstein sitting in the crowd. She debated whether to speak out.
“It was not easy to say something — but I knew that I would feel worse if I did not, based on my own experiences," she told AM to DM.
.@bellykachman talks about what was going through her mind when she called out Harvey Weinstein after he turned up at an event for young actors: "I was very panicked, I was really in a state of being fully triggered."
She said she arrived at Actor's Hour with a prepared set. She said she knew the event was being taped and wanted to deliver for the recording.
She said all that changed when she spotted Weinstein in the crowd.
“I did a double take, triple take, then asked everybody around me, 'Is that really Harvey Weinstein?'” she said.
"I asked the woman next to me, 'That’s Harvey Weinstein. I need to say something, right?' And she looked at me and was like, ‘No, don’t say anything,’” Bachman said.
Bachman said a friend advised her to not let the former movie mogul get in the way of the recording and potentially affect her career.
“Don’t let him take that from you,” Bachman recalled her friend telling her.
But Bachman, who had previously organized an event for comedians who were also rape survivors, said she "felt sort of a duty" to those women to speak up.
"I remembered us all laughing onstage together at the end of that show," she said of the previous event she had organized. "And this was the opposite of that night."
During her set, Bachman referred to Weinstein as "the elephant in the room" and "Freddy Krueger."
A video of her onstage shows that she was booed. One audience member can be heard telling her to shut up.
"This kills at group therapy for rape survivors," Bachman said during her set before saying "fuck you" to Weinstein and continuing with her planned set.
Looking back at the event, Bachman said on Friday, she wishes she had gone further.
“I really struggled to say anything at all. I was worried I was gonna say nothing,” she said. “I wanted to go so much harder, I wanted to say more, and I just said as much as I could.”
Bachman said she has received an outpouring of support from the comedy community and beyond since the story went viral, which she said has eased the trauma of the moment.
“It’s sort of kept me out of the shame spiral that comes with vulnerability when you’re dealing with trauma," she said.
In addition to the outpouring of support online, Bachman added, "For some reason, people just started Venmoing me, and I don’t know why."
