Ashley Judd says what happened to her was illegal and wrong. Photo / Getty Images
Ashley Judd says what happened to her was illegal and wrong. Photo / Getty Images
Ashley Judd was "sexually harassed" by one of the most powerful men in Hollywood.
The 47-year-old actress claims she repeatedly summoned to hotel rooms while filming Kiss the Girls in the late 90s by the head of a rival studio, whom she declined to name, and asked to watch himshower.
In a column for Variety, the Divergent star said: "He was very stealth and expert about it. He groomed me, which is a technical term - 'Oh, come meet at the hotel for something to eat.'
"It went on in these stages. It was so disgusting. He physically lured me by saying, 'Oh, help me pick out what I'm going to wear.' There was a lot that happened between the point of entry and the bargaining.
"When I kept saying no to everything, there was a huge asymmetry of power and control in that room."
Judd discovered years later that a number of other actresses also experienced the same thing.
"Only when we were sitting around talking about it did we realise our experiences were identical. There was a mutual strengthening and fortification of our resolve.
"The ultimate thing when I was weaseling out of everything else was, 'Will you watch me take a shower?' And all the other women, sitting around this table with me, said, 'Oh my god - that's what he said to me too.' "
Judd, who has never been offered a movie by the executive's studio, admits she "beat [herself] up for a while" afterwards, but later realised shame "belongs to the person who is the aggressor."
She added: "I was really hard on myself because I didn't get out of it by saying, 'OK motherf**ker, I'm calling the police.'
"It took years before I could evaluate that incident and realise that there was something incredibly wrong and illegal about it."
