Ashley Judd revealed what most women in Hollywood probably go through. Judd opened up to Variety‘s Power of Women issue, saying she “was sexually harassed by one of our industry’s most famous, admired-slash-reviled bosses.” In the interview, she recounts how one studio boss kept ratcheting up the pressure on her, ultimately asking her to watch him shower.
In my example, there was no casting involved. This was just twirling the lasso… He was very 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. It was so disgusting. He physically lured me by saying, “Oh, help me pick out what I’m going to wear.” There was a lot that happened between the point of entry and the bargaining. There was this whole process of bargaining—“Come do this, come do this, come do this.” And I would say, “No, no, no.”
Sounds like this studio boss was trying to wear Judd down through attrition. Much like war.
The experience wasn’t unique to Judd. She mentions sitting around and discussing this incident with a bunch of actors. All said they had the same experiences. Even down to the tiniest detail.
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.”
Skeezy. Even for a big star like Judd, these types of things happen. Multiply that by the thousands of actors in the industry and the thousands of people in power positions, studio execs, casting directors, anyone with keys to a small part of the kingdom. No one really complains because that’s part of the game in Hollywood.
Any guesses who that studio exec was? Well, commenters over at Jezebel have a hunch.