Molly Ringwald is speaking her truth about working in the industry and facing years of sexual harassment!
In an op-ed essay written for The New Yorker titled All The Other Harvey Weinsteins, the actress described several horrifying experiences, along with her own interactions of working with Harvey Weinstein on the 1990 film Strike It Rich.
She recalled cringe-worthy conversations and tasteless decisions, but made it clear he wasn't the only predator she's ever encountered.
Related: This Is How Carrie Fisher Reacted When She Found Out Her Friend Was Sexually Assaulted!
The Sixteen Candles starlet spilled:
"When I was thirteen, a fifty-year-old crew member told me that he would teach me to dance, and then proceeded to push against me with an erection. When I was fourteen, a married film director stuck his tongue in my mouth on set. At a time when I was trying to figure out what it meant to become a sexually viable young woman, at every turn some older guy tried to help speed up the process. And all this went on despite my having very protective parents who did their best to shield me. I shudder to think of what would have happened had I not had them."
And it only continued as she grew older!
Molly also described the shock of one particularly sickening audition:
"In my twenties, I was blindsided during an audition, when I was asked by the director, in a somewhat rhetorical manner, to let the lead actor put a dog collar around my neck. This was not even remotely in the pages I had studied; I could not even fathom how it made sense in the story. The actor was a friend of mine, and I looked in his eyes with panic. He looked back at me with an 'I'm really sorry' expression on his face as his hands reached out toward my neck. I don't even know if the collar ever made it on me, because that's the closest I've had to an out-of-body experience. I'd like to think that I just walked out, but, more than likely, there's an old VHS tape, disintegrating in a drawer somewhere, of me trying to remember lines with a dog collar around my neck in front of a young man I once had a crush on. I sobbed in the parking lot, and when I got home and called my agent to tell him what happened, he laughed and said, 'Well, I guess that's one for the memoirs. . . .' I fired him and moved to Paris not long after."
While the actress didn't name any names, she did make one very clear when she recalled a major studio head sharing a disgusting quote about her in an interview:
"The magazine Movieline decided to feature me on its cover, I guess because anyone who leaves Hollywood after having success seems intriguing on some level. In that article, the head of a major studio—and, incidentally, someone who claims himself to be horrified by the Harvey allegations—was quoted as saying, 'I wouldn't know [Molly Ringwald] if she sat on my face.' I was twenty-four at the time. Maybe he was misquoted. If he ever sent a note of apology, it must have gotten lost in the mail."
Jeffrey Katzenberg, who has recently condemned Harvey's actions by calling him a "monster," said those exact words about the starlet in a 1995 Movieline interview.
That's fucked up!!
But as Molly explained, women weren't taken seriously if they did speak up about facing sexual harassment or assault:
"I never talked about these things publicly because, as a woman, it has always felt like I may as well have been talking about the weather. Stories like these have never been taken seriously. Women are shamed, told they are uptight, nasty, bitter, can't take a joke, are too sensitive. And the men? Well, if they're lucky, they might get elected President."
You can read her essay in its powerful entirety HERE!
[Image via Ivan Nikolov/WENN.]
No comments:
Post a Comment