Reese Witherspoon alleges assault by a director when she was 16
The actress said she has faced harassment and sexual assault throughout her career.
Reese Witherspoon has alleged she was assaulted by a director as a 16-year-old.
The Oscar-winning actress said she has been harassed and sexually assaulted throughout her career as she became the latest star to speak out in the wake of allegations against Harvey Weinstein.
Speaking as she introduced her Big Little Lies co-star Laura Dern at ELLE’s Women in Los Angeles event on Monday night, Witherspoon said: “This has been a really hard week for women in Hollywood, for women all over the world, for men in a lot of situations and a lot of industries that are forced to remember and relive a lot of ugly truths.”
“And I wish I could tell you that that was an isolated incident in my career, but sadly it wasn’t,” she added.
“I’ve had multiple experiences of harassment and sexual assault, and I don’t speak about them very often, but after hearing all the stories these past few days and hearing these brave women speak up tonight, the things that we’re kind of told to sweep under the rug and not talk about, it’s made me want to speak up and speak up loudly, because I felt less alone this week than I’ve ever felt in my entire career.”
She called on people in Hollywood to ask questions such as “who are your top female executives?” when negotiating with companies.
“Asking questions like that, I found, it seems so obvious, but people don’t ask those questions.
“If we can raise consciousness and really help create change, that’s what’s going to change this industry and change society. So I’m so sad that I have to talk about these issues, but it would be, I would be, remiss not to.”
