The 'Age of Adaline' star shares her own experience with sexual harassment, recalling how her complaints were ignored by the project's producers.
- Oct 13, 2017
AceShowbiz - After several actresses came forward with sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein, Blake Lively opens up about her own experience with sexual harassment. The "Green Lantern" star reveals she became a victim of a sexual misconduct at the hands of a makeup artist.
She recounts the terrifying experience in a new interview with the Los Angeles Times. "He was saying things inappropriately, insisting on putting my lipstick on with his finger," she says. "I was sleeping one night on location and I woke up and he was filming me. I was clothed, but it was a very voyeuristic, terrifying thing to do."
Lively says she reported the issue to the project's producers, but they did nothing. "After three months of complaining, they called me into my trailer and said, 'We need to talk to you,' " she recalls, "I thought, 'Well finally, they're going to do something about this man who I had to have touching me all day.' And they said, 'Your dog left a poop behind the toilet in your dressing room and our janitor had to pick it up. And this is very serious and we can't have this happen again.' "
The "Gossip Girl" alum finally took her sexual harassment complaints to a lawyer, who then conducted an investigation, leading to the makeup artist being removed from the project. Despite his removal, "Our unit production manager wrote him a letter of recommendation because nobody wanted there to be bad blood," Lively says.
Previously, Lively spoke out on the Harvey Weinstein scandal. "That was never my experience with Harvey in any way whatsoever, and I think that if people heard these stories...I do believe in humanity enough to think that this wouldn't have just continued," said the "All I See Is You" actress. "I never heard any stories like this - I never heard anything specific - but it's devastating to hear."
She continued, "The number one thing that can happen is that people who share their stories, people have to listen to them and trust them, and people have to take it seriously. As important as it is to remain furious about this, it's important to also say that this exists everywhere so remember to look everywhere. This isn't a single incident. This cannot happen, this should not happen, and it happens in every single industry."
Lively shared her own experience with sexual harassment, but did not divulge the details. "It happens to women all over the place, all the time, to the point where women don't even think that this is a real assault," she said. "I've had plenty of things happen to me whether it be trying on a dress for prom at some clothing store, to a director being inappropriate, to a guy walking down the street where you don't think, 'Oh well, that wasn't actually sexual assault - this guy just, like, grabbed my butt.' "
