Eight years after delivering one of the defining speeches of the #MeToo era at the Cannes Film Festival, Italian actress and filmmaker Asia Argento says she never expected to return to the French Riviera.The closing ceremony of the 71st Cannes Film Festival in 2018 will be remembered for a dramatic, chilling and emotional moment.Asia Argento delivers an explosive speech at the closing ceremony of the 2018 Cannes Film FestivalJust before presenting the award for best actress, Argento took the stage and delivered an explosive speech."In 1997, I was raped by Harvey Weinstein here at Cannes. I was 21 years old," she said. " This festival was his hunting ground. I want to make a prediction: Harvey Weinstein will never be welcomed here ever again. He will live in disgrace, shunned by a film community that once embraced him and covered up for his crimes."Argento continued: "And even tonight, sitting among you, there are those who still have to be held accountable for their conduct against women for behavior that does not belong... in this industry.""You know who you are," she said. "But more importantly, we know who you are. And we're not going to allow you to get away with it any longer."Argento ended her remarks with a raised fist and a triumphant expression that conveyed both courage and defiance.8 View gallery Asia Argento (Photo: Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)The audience inside the theater was stunned, while viewers watching the live broadcast around the world reacted strongly. Argento overshadowed the evening's winners, and her speech quickly made headlines globally, becoming one of the defining moments of the #MeToo movement.In an interview with The New Yorker, Argento later described how Weinstein sexually assaulted her in his hotel room after she agreed to give him a massage, pulling her skirt up, forcing her legs apart and performing oral sex on her as she repeatedly told him to stop. "He terrified me, and he was so big," she said. "It wouldn't stop. It was a nightmare."Eight years later, Argento's prediction has largely come true. Weinstein is disgraced, imprisoned and no longer welcome at Cannes, which had once served as his second home and, according to many accusers, his hunting ground.Months after her speech, however, Argento became embroiled in controversy of her own. California authorities reviewed allegations that she sexually assaulted actor and musician Jimmy Bennett in a hotel room in 2013 when he was 17. The two had previously appeared together in a film.8 View gallery Asia Argento (Photo: Joel Ryan/AP)Bennett later claimed Argento paid him money in exchange for his silence. Argento denied the allegations and accused Bennett of attempting to extort her. In a letter published online in September 2018, Argento's attorney acknowledged that a sexual encounter had taken place but claimed Bennett had initiated it. Amid the controversy, Argento was removed from her role as a judge on the Italian version of "The X Factor."In the years since, Argento — who has also worked as a musician, model and director — continued her career but did not return to Cannes.That changed last month at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, where she arrived with a new film, Death Has No Master, a psychological horror thriller in which she stars. The film, about a woman returning to Venezuela to sell her late father's cocoa plantations, screened in the prestigious Directors' Fortnight sidebar section."I thought I would never be welcome here again," Argento told ynet in an interview at a fashionable beachfront restaurant in Cannes.Why?