Especially given everything that’s going on with Kesha and Dr. Luke, we’ve become hyper-conscious of the abuse and exploitation that’s just rampant in the entertainment industry. Sadly, the heartbreaking stories just keep coming.
In a recent interview with W, actress Thandie Newton opens up about how she was sexually abused by a director earlier in her career, according to Cosmopolitan.
“A director, on a callback, had a camera shooting up my skirt and asked me to touch my tits and think about the guy making love to me in the scene. I thought, ‘Ok, this is a little weird,’ but there was a female casting director in the room and I’d done weird stuff before so I did it,” she recalled in the interview.
But it wasn’t until years later at a film festival when she realized what happened when a drunk producer came up to her and said, “Oh, Thandie, I’ve seen you recently!” She didn’t understand what he meant so she sent her husband to find out and apparently “the director was showing that audition tape to his friends after poker games at his house. And they would all get off on it.” This is just appalling.
Although no one wants to ever have an experience like that, it did teach her a lesson, she said. “I was so so naïve when I started out and I realize now that we have to prepare our kids— I’ve got two beautiful daughters, one is 16 one is 11,” she explained—and the way to do that is by talking about what happened.
She added that she hopes even one person will read about her story and take it to heart—and that it will “stop them from getting sexually abused by a director.” She said, “that’s the person I’m interested in.”
Thank you, Thandie, thank you.