Ron Perlman Leaves Fans Stunned With Story About Peeing On His Hand Before Shaking Harvey Weinstein's

During an especially unsanitary round of storytime on Inside of You with Smallville’s Michael Rosenbaum, Ron Perlman resurrected one of Hollywood’s most infamous bits of petty rebellion: the “pee-pee handshake” he claims he once served to convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein.

Back in the political chaos of 2018, the Sons of Anarchy star revealed that he deliberately peed on his hand before greeting Weinstein at a charity event.

Yes, really.

Rosenbaum opened the door immediately, asking Perlman point-blank:

“This is probably bullsh*t—did you really piss on your hand before shaking Weinstein’s?”

Before we get further into the petty Olympics of this story, it’s important to remember the real context: in 2017, the New York Times and The New Yorker exposed three decades of assault and harassment allegations against Weinstein, including multiple secret settlements. Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, and many others came forward, helping launch the #MeToo movement.

Weinstein is serving a 23-year sentence in New York for rape and sexual assault, plus an additional 16-year sentence in Los Angeles.

Two years before those convictions, Perlman had tweeted this:

“Did I ever tell ya about when Harvey Weinstein told me to make sure I shook his hand at a charity event, so I stopped in the mens room and pissed all over my hand, then went straight up to him on the receiving line? I think about that every time lil donnie opens up his KFC.”

And the story is not only an example of Perlman’s feud with the disgraced producer, but also how the ongoing feud with Donald Trump Jr. was ignited. You see, the “little donnie” in that tweet was a reference to then-first-term Donald Trump, whose son did not take the remark lightly.

Donald Junior, of course, took umbrage and replied to the 2018 tweet:

“So you knew he was a rapist and rather the actually do something or say anything you pissed all over your hand??? Imagine how many assaults on innocent women you could have prevented if you weren't a coward."

Perlman clapped back, clarifying immediately that he had no knowledge of Weinstein’s abuses and simply disliked him for being, in his words, a bully with a god complex.

Perlman is a lifelong Democrat who has frequently criticized Donald Trump and his administration, which helps explain why Trump Jr. took the tweet so personally. Perlman has also publicly supported labor movements, including the 2023 SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, and has never shied away from calling out powerful figures in Hollywood.

In other words, whatever his flaws, staying silent to protect an industry heavyweight has never really been Perlman’s style. And none of this excuses or elevates the reasoning behind the bathroom antics; it simply adds context to why Trump Jr. and Perlman reacted so aggressively to each other.

Writing back to Trump Jr., he greeted him:

“Hey young don, nice ta meetcha! And thanks for the follow! So... I never said I knew Harve was a rapist. I never worked for Harve. I wasn't home his type. I DID know he was a prick though. A prick and a bully. And I gotta thing about that."

However, the two clearly disagree on who knew what about the now disgraced and indicted producer and what exactly a certain wet handshake really signifies.

You can view the exchange below:

What the tweet exchange doesn’t relay is the origin of that irritation.

Perlman has said publicly that years earlier, during the Cannes Film Festival, he’d asked to attend one of Weinstein’s charity events. Weinstein took the call only because he confused Ron Perlman with billionaire Ron Perelman, and when he realized he was talking to the actor instead, he allegedly unleashed a tirade belittling him.

Weinstein, according to Perlman, ended the call by demanding:

“You make sure, if you’re gonna come to my event, you make sure you shake my hand, Ron.”

So Perlman did exactly that—with a little unsanitary pre-game warmup.

On Inside of You, he retold the moment itself:

“I went on the receiving line, I shook his hand, I said: ‘Harvey, out of respect, just like you requested.’ He goes: ‘Thank you, Ron, you’re a gent.’”

Ron then called Weinstein, “a f**king d**kwad.”

You can watch the moment at the 9:07 timestamp here:

- YouTubeyoutu.be

Through all of this, Perlman has been consistent about one thing, and repeated it on the podcast: he had no idea what Weinstein was doing behind closed doors. The pee-pee handshake wasn’t a protest, a warning, or a moral stance. It was petty revenge against a man he considered a pompous bully. Nothing more and nothing less.

Of course, the real heroes of this story are not celebrities with mischievous bladders. They are the women who risked their careers, safety, families, and friends, and public scrutiny to come forward to eventually ignite the #MeToo movement. They are the journalists who kept digging, the investigators who connected patterns, and the survivors who broke decades of silence.

Perlman’s anecdote is funny. It’s a moment of small, chaotic satisfaction in an industry where Weinstein intimidated countless people for years. But the comedy lands precisely because justice never depended on Perlman’s prank; it depended on the courage of people far braver than he, or any actor armed only with spite and access to a restroom.

And as Perlman’s oft-told tale resurfaced again, the internet naturally rallied around him:

u/mlg1981/Reddit

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u/riegspsych325/Reddit

u/raysofdavies/Reddit

u/NotAsBrightlyLit/Reddit

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Yes, Ron Perlman may have delivered one of Hollywood’s most chaotic handshakes. And yes, the internet will absolutely keep bringing it up forever.

But the real impact, the real change, the real history—that belongs to the survivors. Perlman’s story may reemerge every time he sits down for a podcast, but those women are the reason Harvey Weinstein will never again stand on a receiving line shaking anyone’s hand.