Sexism in Hollywood is certainly not a new topic, but Jessica Chastain is the latest star to step forward and talk about her experience with sexual harassment in her workplace, and she did so in a big way.
In an interview with Telegraph, the actress reveals that early on in her career she was “kind of spanked” on set by a well-known member of the film industry.
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“I won’t say who, but I’ve been on a movie where someone very important… I had been walking down the hall and they kind of spanked me on the butt. And I did turn around and say, ‘Did you just spank me?’ I was really upset about it. But in their mind, it was completely normal. It was fine behavior,” she says.
Recently, there have been a few major sexual harassment lawsuits filed against big name members of Fox News. The network’s former CEO Roger Ailes and host Bill O’Reilly have both been accused of harassment as well as verbal abuse.
Last year, Fox News reporter Gretchen Carlson filed a lawsuit against Ailes alleging that he “sabotaged her career” because she “refused his sexual advances and complained about severe and pervasive sexual harassment.” Carlson received a reported $20 million settlement deal from 21st Century Fox and Ailes resigned.
Just this month, O’Reilly was forced out of Fox News after it was revealed that he and the company paid settlements to multiple women who accused the host of sexual harassment and verbal abuse. In both of these Fox News situations, after one woman exposed their experience with sexual harassment, other women followed suit. It is important to note that the abuse did not just recently start, it was reportedly going on for years.
This makes us believe that Chastain has the right mindset when stating, “I think stuff like that happens all the time.”
She has experienced it once and made a promise to herself that she will speak up if there is any other wrongful behavior performed against her or others in the future.
“Probably now it would never happen to me because I’m really… I’m not a shrinking violet,” she said. “If I see behavior against me, or against anyone, that is unjust, then I will absolutely say something.”
Earlier this month, Redbook conducted the same survey they completed forty years prior regarding sexual harassment on women in the workplace. The results showed very little change and that 80 percent of women reported have experienced sexual harassment of some type in their workplace.
Other women in Hollywood have spoken out about their experiences with sexual harassment. In 2015, Ashley Judd told Variety that a studio executive sexually harassed her. She said, “It took years before I could evaluate that incident and realize that there was something incredibly wrong and illegal about it.”
Rose McGowan announced on Twitter in 2016 that she was raped by a studio executive.
This article first appeared on Womanista.com
