Selma Blair and Rachel McAdams say they were sexually harassed by James Toback

Selma Blair and Rachel McAdams have said that they were both sexually harassed by the director James Toback.

It emerged this week, via a report from the LA Times, that 38 women had accused Toback of sexual harassment and assault.

That number has now swelled to more than 200 accounts.

Blair had been among the initial women to speak to the Times for the article, which was published last Sunday, but had done so on the condition of anonymity.

However, on seeing that Toback had denied all the allegations, she told Vanity Fair that she ‘felt rage and an obligation to speak publicly now’.

Blair says that Toback lured her to a hotel room on the pretence of an audition, and after 40 minutes of the meeting, asked her to remove her clothes to read the part.

“I told him I was uncomfortable,” she said. “But he continued to coax me—saying that this was in no way a come-on. This was part of training. He wanted to make me a good actress. He wanted to make me comfortable. I thought, ‘Well, my representation sent me to see him. He must be really important.’”

She eventually relented, at which point she says Toback began touching himself and making lewd suggestions.

On trying to leave, she added that he blocked the door, telling her she couldn’t leave until he had ejaculated.

“I tried to look away, but he would hold my face,” she said.

“So I was forced to look into his eyes. And I felt disgust and shame, and like nobody would ever think of me as being clean again after being this close to the devil. His energy was so sinister.”

After he was done, he threatened her, suggesting she would be kidnapped or killed if she spoke of the incident.

“I still felt so powerless and scared,” Blair added. “I kept thinking, ‘O.K., is there a big actress who is going to come out so that she can be the face of this? I want to bring as much awareness to this harassment as possible because I want Toback to be held accountable.”

McAdams speaks of a similar incident, when she was 21, being lured to a hotel room following an audition for the movie ‘Harvard Man’.

“Pretty quickly the conversation turned quite sexual and he said, ‘You know, I just have to tell you. I have masturbated countless times today thinking about you since we met at your audition,’” she said.

He then excused himself to go to the bathroom, and on returning said that he had masturbated thinking about her, and asked her to show him her pubic hair.

McAdams managed to leave to room, and informed her agent of the incident, who apologized and told a furious McAdams that they had heard a similar story from another client.

“I felt like I was kind of thrown into the lion’s den and given no warning that he was a predator,” she said.

“You have to get it all out in the open and in the light so that we can really understand how pervasive this is.

“I think we almost have to exhaust ourselves sharing our experiences before the rebuilding can begin. And hopefully we never slip back into this darkness again.”

Toback has declined to comment about the claims.

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