Blake Lively revealed she was sexually harassed by a makeup artist who filmed her while she slept
Blake Lively is opening up about her own experiences with sexual harassment after several female celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie came forward following allegations of sexual misconduct against Harvey Weinstein.
Lively, 30, revealed her “terrifying” experience with sexual harassment allegedly at the hands of a makeup artist. “He was saying things inappropriately, insisting on putting my lipstick on with his finger,” she told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday.
“I was sleeping one night on location and I woke up and he was filming me,” she continued, “I was clothed, but it was a very voyeuristic, terrifying thing to do.”
Lively, 30, said she told producers about the issue but that nothing happened after she spoke out. Instead, the mother of two claims she was approached about a different incident, this time about her dog defecating behind a toilet in her dressing room. The actress said producers told her, “‘This is very serious and we can’t have this happen again.’”
She took her sexual harassment complaints to a lawyer, which opened up an investigation that caused the makeup artist to be removed from the project, she told the LA Times. Despite his removal, Lively said it doesn’t prevent him from working in the industry.
“Our unit production manager wrote him a letter of recommendation because nobody wanted there to be bad blood,” Lively said.
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On Tuesday, Lively had spoken out oh the Weinstein allegations but did not divulge her own experience with harassment.
“That was never my experience with Harvey in any way whatsoever, and I think that if people heard these stories… I do believe in humanity enough to think that this wouldn’t have just continued,” she told The Hollywood Reporter . “I never heard any stories like this — I never heard anything specific — but it’s devastating to hear.”
She continued, “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, ‘That is unacceptable.’”
On Tuesday, The New Yorker revealed — among 13 different women’s accounts of alleged sexual harassment, assault or rape — that the mogul allegedly forcibly performed oral sex on Italian actress Asia Argento two decades ago.
Actresses Mira Sorvino and Rosanna Arquette also claimed that after rejecting Weinstein’s unwanted advances, they were removed from or kept from being hired for projects.
Also on Tuesday, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie added their own accounts of alleged mistreatment.
In a New York Times report last week, eight women — including actress Ashley Judd — spoke out against Weinstein, accusing him of inappropriate behavior.
In response to the lengthy allegations made against him in The New Yorker piece, a spokesperson for Weinstein said, “Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein.”
This article originally appeared in People.com
