Actor Randy Quaid revealed Wednesday he was the victim of a brutal sexual assault as a 5-year-old boy.
The Independence Day star said he was motivated to share his story after other industry leaders have come forward with similar stories of sexual crimes.
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“With all the other victims of abuse coming forward now is a good time to tell this story and join others dealing with their own, similar Hollywood encounters that must to be addressed and the perpetrators exposed for their evil smarminess,” he wrote in a series of tweets recalling his experience in graphic detail.
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The now 67-year-old said he went to a 14-year-old neighbor’s house to play croquet — which he did often — but this day the boy told him they’d have to go to the bathroom first.
Once there, a young Quaid was forced to pull down his pants and underwear and endure a “brutal” sexual assault. The neighbor kid held a glass bottle of rubbing alcohol and threatened to hit Quaid with it if he didn’t comply.
“The look in his eyes frightened me,” Quaid recalled. “He had suddenly transformed from being my friend into this hideous monster I didn’t recognize.”
He remembers crying and screaming in pain throughout the act and “thought I was dying,” he said.
After the assault, Quaid ran to his mom and told her what happened. He said they told a policeman who lived across the street, but he didn’t reveal whether anything came of his admission.
Looking back on the experience, he said it may have led him to pursue a career in acting.
“Immersing myself in a character is a means of channeling the rage, removing me from myself essentially, allowing me to utilize the emotional baggage that’s piled up inside through the years,” he said.
Quaid said like many other actors, performing in character is a coping method, “a welcomed survival mechanism.”
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“I suppressed my feelings and as a result I became very shy, placing too much trust in people undeserving of my trust, my instincts for self-preservation blunted,” he continued. I was left feeling vulnerable, and the vulnerability in turn manifests itself in personality and behavior, which does not go unnoticed by vicious Hollywood predators where I continue to be taken advantage of by these monsters.”
“Time to drain the Hollywood swamp and get rid of these creeps,” he concluded.
Quaid’s allegations of sexual assault come after actors and entertainment industry workers claim they were victims of sexual misconduct by several Hollywood heavyweights. Harvey Weinstein has been accused by tens of women of sexual harassment and actor Kevin Spacey has now been accused by three men of misconduct.
Photo credit: Twitter / @randyrrquaid
