Blake Lively Claims She Was Sexually Harassed by a Makeup Artist Who Filmed Her While She Was Sleeping
Blake Lively is speaking out about her own "terrifying" experience of feeling violated in the workplace after numerous women have come forward -- including Angelina Jolie, Kate Beckinsale and Gwyneth Paltrow -- alleging that they were either sexually harassed or assaulted by Harvey Weinstein.
The 30-year-old actress tells the Los Angeles Times that she worked with a male makeup artist that made her extremely uncomfortable on set. "He was saying things inappropriately, insisting on putting my lipstick on with his finger," Lively claims.
The Gossip Girl star says the sexual harassment only escalated.
“I was sleeping one night on location and I woke up and he was filming me,” she alleges. “I was clothed, but it was a very voyeuristic, terrifying thing to do.”
Lively says she reported the alleged sexual harassment to producers but nothing was initially done about it. That's when the mother of two took her complaints to a lawyer, which led to an investigation. The makeup artist was then removed from the project.
Lively notes that the man is still working in the industry despite the alleged incident. “Our unit production manager wrote him a letter of recommendation because nobody wanted there to be bad blood,” she says.
On Tuesday, Lively also spoke out in support of those women who went public with allegations that Weinstein had sexually harassed and/or assaulted them.
"The number one thing that can happen is that people who share their stories, people have to listen to them and trust them, and people have to take it seriously," she told The Hollywood Reporter. "As important as it is to remain furious about this, it's important to also say that this exists everywhere so remember to look everywhere. This isn't a single incident. This cannot happen, this should not happen, and it happens in every single industry."
Lively added, "It's important that women are furious right now. It's important that there is an uprising. It's important that we don't stand for this and that we don't focus on one or two or three or four stories, it's important that we focus on humanity in general and say, 'This is unacceptable.'"
MORE: Kate Beckinsale Alleges Harvey Weinstein Sexually Harassed Her as a Teenager
Both men and women in Hollywood continue to speak out against sexual harassment this week, including Meryl Streep, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Lawrence and Ryan Gosling.
Here's a few of their statements: