Reese Witherspoon Reveals She Was Sexually Assaulted by Director When She Was Just 16
Reese Witherspoon is sharing her own “Me Too” story, revealing she was sexually assaulted by a movie director when she was just 16.
“True disgust at the director who assaulted me when I was 16 years old,” she said at an Elle magazine event in Hollywood Monday night. “And I wish I could tell you that that was an isolated incident in my career, but sadly, it wasn’t.”
Her startling revelation comes in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, which has opened the floodgates on sexual harassment in Hollywood.
“I have my own experiences that have come back to me very vividly, and I found it really hard to sleep, hard to think, hard to communicate. A lot of the feelings I’ve been having about anxiety, about being honest, the guilt for not speaking up earlier or taking action,” she said.
At the same event, Jennifer Lawrence said that she was "degraded" by a female producer who told her to lose 15 pounds as she got her start in show business.
“A female producer had me do a nude lineup with about five women who were much, much thinner than me. And we all stood side-by-side with only paste-ons covering our privates,” Lawrence said. “After that degrading and humiliating lineup, the female producer told me I should use the naked photos of myself as inspiration for my diet."
The #MeToo movement is turning into a global phenomenon as hundreds of thousands of women are following a call to action by Charmed star Alyssa Milano to use the hashtag if they have been victims of sexual harassment or assault.
Superstore actress America Ferrara posted that she was sexually assaulted at age 9.
#MeToo pic.twitter.com/JQRASxZ92R
— America Ferrera (@AmericaFerrera) October 17, 2017
Gabrielle Union, who survived a rape when she was 19, spoke out about the #MeToo movement on Good Morning America Tuesday.
“I saw #MeToo and my arm went numb," she said. "I thought it was all about me and when I realized literally hundreds of thousands of people, men and women, [were] talking about being a part of this unfortunate club... it just rips your heart out."
Read: Woman Who Applied to Be Harvey Weinstein's Nanny Describes Creepy Interview With Movie Mogul
Meanwhile, more women are coming forward with accusations against disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein.
Actress Lauren Holly told a Canadian talk show earlier this week that Weinstein was furious when she rebuffed his advances in a hotel room in the 1990s.
“He told me I would make a bad decision if I got out of there, that it would be bad for me and bad for my career, that I needed to keep him as an ally,” she claimed.
She said she got out by pushing him and running away.
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