NEW YORK – The first accuser to take the stand in Harvey Weinstein's sex crimes trial, "Sopranos" actress Annabella Sciorra, choked up Thursday as she said Weinstein raped her in her New York apartment in the winter of 1993-94 and told her in a "threatening" way not to tell anyone.

After a morning of questioning by the prosecution, cross-examination of Sciorra by Weinstein's lead defense attorney, Donna Rotunno, began just before lunch.

In her questions, Rotunno tried to raise doubts about details in Sciorra's story. Why, she asked, didn't Sciorra save messages she said Weinstein repeatedly left her after the alleged rape?

"So this person that you claim came into your home and raped you is now trying to contact you in London, and you don’t save any of the messages?" Rotunno asked.

"No," Sciorra replied.

The defense showed a 23-year-old clip from an interview Sciorra did with David Letterman during a press tour for the movie "Cop Land" in 1997. The clip showed her joking with Letterman: “I’ve been caught lying a lot in the past few years.”

Letterman asked her, "How do I know you’re not lying about all this?" Sciorra responded, "You don’t."

In the morning, as she began to detail her story, Sciorra, 59, was composed, spoke clearly and even chuckled when asked questions by Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi about her early years trying to break into the entertainment industry.

She had trouble speaking when she described what happened in her Gramercy Park apartment one night after dinner with a group including Weinstein at an Irish restaurant.

She said Weinstein offered to drop her off at her apartment. She prepared for bed, then heard a knock on the door.

"(Weinstein) was there and pushed the door open, so I didn't have an opportunity to know why he was there," she said. "Then he started to unbutton his shirt, and then I realized that in his head, he wanted to have sex, and I didn’t want to. ... I realized what he wanted was pretty obvious, so I started to back up into my bathroom. ... I felt very overpowered because he was very big."

She said he grabbed her above her chest, led her into the bedroom and shoved her on the bed.

"I was punching him, I was kicking him, I was trying to get him away from me," she said. "He got on top of me and he raped me. ... He had intercourse with me, and I was trying to fight him, but I couldn't fight anymore because he had my hands locked (over her head)."

Then, she said, he performed oral sex on her against her will, but "I didn't have much fight left in me at that point. I said, 'No, no,' but my body shut down."

She stuttered a bit as she described her disgust and how her body began to shake "like a seizure or something."

She said Weinstein got up and walked out. "I'm not sure if I fainted or fell asleep or blacked out, but I woke up on the floor with my nightgown kind of up, and I didn't know if something else had happened," she said.

She said she was not drunk that night, nor had she taken Valium or any other drug.

"Afterwards, I wanted to pretend it never happened. Because I wanted to get back to my life," Sciorra said, choking up again. She didn't call the police, she said, because she didn't know if what happened was a crime.

"I thought he was a nice person. I thought he was an OK guy," she said. "I felt confused. I felt like I wished I had never opened the door. ... I felt at the time that rape happened in a back alleyway by somebody you (didn’t know)."

She said she confronted Weinstein at a restaurant two to six weeks later.

"I tried to talk to him about what happened, and I told him how I woke up and that I’d blacked out, and he said, ‘That’s what all the nice Catholic girls say,' " she said.

"And then he leaned into me and said, ‘This remains between you and I.’ It was very menacing, his eyes were black, and I thought he was going to hit me right there. It was threatening, and I was afraid," she said.

She began crying as she described how she tried to resume her life but withdrew from friends and from going out. She didn't tell her friends or family about the encounter. She began drinking and began to cut herself. She lost weight, and she suffered from depression.

"I had this wall that was white, and then I began to paint it like a blood-red color with tubes of oil paint. I don't know what I was thinking, but I used to cut myself and put the blood from my hands and fingers into this masterpiece," she said, crying harder.

"I wanted (friends and family) to protect me … but I didn’t tell them what happened," she said. "I really wanted somebody in my family, but I didn’t want to tell my parents. ... It was hard to talk about."

She said Weinstein continued to pursue her, calling her and asking her to breakfast meetings. When they were in the same hotel, she said, he banged on her room door saying, "This is Harvey, open up!"

In Cannes to promote a movie, she discovered to her chagrin that her hotel room was next door to his.

"I opened the door very early one morning around 5 a.m. ... and (Weinstein) was there in his underwear with a bottle of baby oil in one hand," she said. "I got very scared. I was once again in my nightclothes. I backed up and started pressing all the buttons for service, and people came." Weinstein left, she said.

On cross-examination, Rotunno asked Sciorra how Weinstein reached the door of her apartment in a building with a doorman and why she opened the door in her nightgown to a knock she was not expecting.

She said "it happened very fast," so she was unable to call the doorman or 911 after Weinstein entered her apartment. Rotunno asked several times whether she tried to leave her apartment.

"He was too big … it was very fast, and I tried fighting," Sciorra said. "I was yelling at him to get off me and to leave me alone." She said she didn’t scratch or poke him in the eyes.

Afterward, Rotunno asked, did she call the doorman to ask why he let someone up to her apartment, or did she make a complaint to the condo or building board?

"No, I was devastated," Sciorra responded. Nor did she go to the police, a doctor or a hospital, she said.

Sciorra said, "I didn’t understand that was rape."

"You were 33 years old," Rotunno said.

Rotunno asked why she didn't speak up when she belatedly realized a movie she was part of was produced by Weinstein's Miramax company?

"So when you realized that Miramax was a part of it, you never once said to your agent that you didn’t want to be part of a movie with the man who you say sexually assaulted you?" Rotunno asked.

"No," Sciorra replied.

Weinstein is not charged with a crime in connection with Sciorra's allegation, because it's too old to prosecute under the statute of limitations. The Manhattan District Attorney's office offered her testimony to bolster the "predatory" charges against Weinstein, which could increase prison time if he's convicted.

New York law requires prosecutors to prove Weinstein assaulted more than one person to be defined as a predator; Sciorra is an insurance witness in case the jury does not believe the two women whose allegations are the basis of the five charges against him.

Weinstein, 67, is charged with five sex crimes, including rape and sexual assault, stemming from encounters with two women, Jessica Mann in 2013 and Miriam "Mimi" Haleyi in 2006.

He pleaded not guilty to all charges and denied all nonconsensual sex. He has been charged with similar sex crimes in Los Angeles; that case is on hold until the New York case is resolved. The trial, which opened Jan. 6, is likely to last two months.

Wednesday, after the jury was dismissed, Weinstein's lawyers complained that the jury had been "poisoned" by the prosecution's opening statement. It described Weinstein as a "predatory monster" and included a picture of him posing with former President Bill Clinton.

The defense asked Judge James Burke to "start again" with a new jury. Burke denied the motion. Defense lawyers sought a mistrial, arguing that it was wrong for prosecutors to ask a witness to describe Weinstein's appearance and personal characteristics. Burke denied that motion as well.

Assistant District Attorney Meghan Hast's opening statement labeled the fallen movie mogul a rapist.

The defense team followed with Damon Cheronis, one of Weinstein's lawyers, reading what he called friendly text messages and emails exchanged between Weinstein and some accusers after the alleged sexual assaults.

"At the end of this trial, the evidence will be clear, that the man seated right there was not just a titan in Hollywood, but a rapist," Hast said. "(He used) his power and prestige in the entertainment industry to ensure (accusers') silence. … Although they're strangers to one another, they’ll each describe to you their shame and humiliation following their violent encounters with the defendant."

At times while Hast spoke, Weinstein shrugged at his legal team, shook his head or stared at the jury.

Cheronis began his opening by rejecting Hast's characterization of Weinstein. He delved into emails and texts exchanged between Weinstein and some of his accusers, including Mann, one of two complaining witnesses, who said Weinstein raped her in her New York hotel room in March 2013.

Cheronis said Mann exchanged friendly messages with Weinstein immediately and years after the alleged rape, telling him she "loved him" and describing him as her “casual boyfriend” in a note entry on her phone.

He said Mann and prosecutors “want to have it both ways. … You can’t say, ‘I’m afraid of this man and trying to get away from him,’ and then turn around and ask him to spend time with you."

These exchanges are likely to be a major issue at the trial. The defense argued they show some accusers had "friendly, even loving" relationships with Weinstein after alleged assaults.

The prosecution is likely to introduce expert witnesses who will testify that this is not uncommon behavior by accusers after a sexual assault.