Ashley Judd says she was sexually harassed by a major studio executive and other actresses were too.
For the first time ever, Ashley Judd is opening up about sexual harassment she says she was forced to go through as a young actress by a major studio executive.
“It was so disgusting,” Judd, 47, explains to Variety about an experience she said happened while filming Kiss the Girls in the late ’90s involving an unnamed executive not connected to the film she describes as “one of our industry’s most famous, admired-slash-reviled bosses.”
Ashley Judd says that despite studying gender studies in College and feeling like an empowered woman in Hollywood, however the imbalance of power between the two made her stay quiet in public as she was unable to say no without trying to offend him.
“In my example, there was no casting involved. This was just twirling the lasso,” she explains. “He was so stealth and expert about it. He groomed me, which is a technical term – Oh, come meet at the hotel for something to eat. Fine, I show up. Oh, he’s actually in his room. I’m like, Are you kidding me? I just worked all night. I’m just going to order cereal. It went on in these stages.”
Judd, who has previously spoken out against cyber-bullying and gender discrimination and violence, says that in retrospect that it can be easy to say she should have just walked away. But, because the studio executive was so power, then it made it very difficult.
“I have a feeling if this is online and people have the opportunity to post comments, a lot of the people will say, ‘Why didn’t you leave the room?’ which is victim-blaming. When I kept saying no to everything, there was a huge asymmetry of power and control in that room,” she says.
Ashley Judd continues on by saying “it took years before I could evaluate that incident and realize that there was something incredibly wrong and illegal about it.”
“I beat myself up for a while,” she says. “This is another part of the process. We internalize the shame. It really belongs to the person who is the aggressor.”
She was shocked when she heard other actresses experience the same thing she did.
“The ultimate thing when I was weaseling out of everything else was, ‘Will you watch me take a shower?’ And all the other women, sitting around this table with me, said, ‘Oh my god – that’s what he said to me too.’ ”
“In that moment, I told him something like, ‘When I win an Academy Award in one of your movies.’ He said, ‘No, when you get nominated.’ I said, ‘No, no, when I win an Academy Award.’ That was a small moment of power when I was able to contradict him and hold to my reality. And then I got out of there. And by the way, I’ve never been offered a movie by that studio. Ever,” she also says.
Judd also says she is speaking out about the incident now in hopes that her story can change Hollywood.
“Part of the strategy that keeps girls and women constrained in their professional experiences is retaliation and ridicule,” she says. “We’re individually and collectively coming to a realization and acceptance that this is an entrenched part of the reality, and I think that talking about it is essential to the process of becoming aware.”
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What do you think of Ashley Judd’s comments? Do you think sexual harassment is that bad in Hollywood? Share with us your thoughts in the comments below!
