Eva LaRue, who starred on CSI: Miami and All My Children, has come forward with another disturbing Steven Seagal “casting couch” allegation. She said Friday Seagal sexual harassed her in 1990 when she went to his house for an audition.
The 50-year-old LaRue told Deadline that she went to Seagal’s home for an audition in 1990 when she was 22. She claims Seagal locked her in a room with him and opened his kimono, exposing his underpants.
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LaRue said her agent told her he set up an audition for her with Seagal, but it would be at the Under Siege actor’s house. She was suspicious about an interview at someone’s house, “But my agent assured me that the reason it was at his house was because they hadn’t secured their studio offices yet,” she told Deadline.
The agent assured her that two producers and a casting director would be there. When she arrived at Seagal’s house, she was met by the producers and a woman who said she was a casting director. They talked about the character she would be playing. Later, Seagal appeared and told her to follow him to another room where she would be given the script.
LaRue claims Seagal told her to sit on a couch in a room that appeared to be an office or a guest room.
“It was like a literal casting couch,” she recalled. “And as I was walking towards the couch, with my back towards the door, he’s busy closing and locking the doors behind my back. I go to sit on the couch, and he comes towards me and he’s opening his weirdo kimono. There’s no script or anything. Just him standing there with his kimono open. He had underwear on, thank God, and he was bare everywhere else. And it was clear he was not just getting cozy.”
The actress says she then tried to leave the room, telling Seagal she had another meeting to get to. She realized that Seagal locked the door from the inside and he offered her a drink. She told him to send her the script and made a “beeline” to the front door. She said Seagal never touched her.
LaRue now thinks she wasn’t really being considered for a role. She said she told her agent about the incident.
“All these agents back then knew what was going on for ages,” she told Deadline. “Thanks for not telling us. Everybody knew but us actors. But nobody followed up or anything.”
Several women have accused Seagal of sexual harassment, with stories similar to LaRue’s, including Jenny McCarthy, Juliana Marguiles and Portia de Rossi.
“Most of us have had to dodge these bullets our entire careers,” LaRue told Deadline. “It was part of being a woman in the industry. It’s like wearing pumps: It’s painful, but we gotta wear pumps.”
Photo credit: CBS Television
