True Lies stunt coordinator Joel Kamer called Eliza Dushku‘s allegation of sexual molestation against him “atrocious lies.”
Kramer told The Hollywood Reporter that the claims hit him “like a sledgehammer” and he was “floored” by it. “I’m already getting emails that people want to kill me,” he said.
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Dusku was 12 years old when she filmed James Cameron’s True Lies in 1994. On Saturday, the 37-year-old actress posted a long Facebook message, alleging that Kramer sexually molested her during production.
She accused him of building her and her parents’ trust “for months” and “lured” her to his Miami hotel room. There, he put her on one of the beds, put a movie on and turned the air-conditioning as high as it went. He went to the bathroom and came out, allegedly only wearing a small hand towel between his legs.
“I remember how he laid me down on the bed, wrapped me with his gigantic writhing body, and rubbed all over me. He spoke these words: ‘You’re not going to sleep on me now sweetie, stop pretending you’re sleeping,’ as he rubbed harder and faster against my catatonic body,” Dushku wrote. “When he was ‘finished’, he suggested, ‘I think we should be careful…,’ [about telling anyone] he meant. I was 12, he was 36.”
During a taxi ride after the alleged incident, Dushku sat her on his lap and “grew aroused again.”
“I don’t ever remember being alone with her. ‘Luring’ her up to my hotel room, is just crazy,” Kramer told The Hollywood Reporter. He said an assistant told him Dushku had a crush on him.
“I don’t know what goes through a young girl’s mind, I don’t know what goes through anyone’s mind,” he told THR. “Something set her off somewhere.”
Dushku said she told her parents, two adult friends and one of her older brothers about the incident.
“Over the years I’ve really struggled as I’ve wondered how my life might have been different if someone, any one grown-up who witnessed his sick ways, had spoken up before he lured me to that hotel room,” she wrote.
Dushku also wrote about getting injured on the set of True Lies, suffering broken ribs. Dushku tweeted about suffering broken ribs and concussions on the set of the film in 2009.
Worst injury you have recieved doing a stunt? @xeos_ Coupla broken ribs on True Lies. Few concussions spread-out over the yrs too. Explains
— Eliza Dushku (@elizadushku) September 26, 2009
“To be clear, over the course of those months rehearsing and filming True Lies, it was Joel Kramer who was responsible for my safety on a film that at the time broke new ground for action films,” Dushku wrote. “On a daily basis he rigged wires and harnesses on my 12 year old body. My life was literally in his hands: he hung me in the open air, from a tower crane, atop an office tower, 25+ stories high. Whereas he was supposed to be my protector, he was my abuser.”
Kramer disputed this with The Hollywood Reporter.
“She may have gotten bruised, I don’t think she broke any ribs, I don’t remember that at all. We do everything we can to make sure everybody is safe,” he told THR. “We took care of her like she was our kid. It was important that Eliza trusted me and the stunt team. Especially with a minor. I’ve never gotten anybody hurt.”
Kramer told THR he plans to talk to an attorney, but “why would I want to countersue and ruin her life? It’s a lose-lose for everybody.”
Kramer is still working, most recently coordinating stunts on Blade Runner 2049, Westworld and Star Trek: Discovery.
Dusku recently appeared in episodes of CBS’ Bull and Cinemax’s Banshee. She also starred in Bring It On and Dollhouse.
Photo credit: Dave Russell/CBS
