Ashley Judd Reveals She Was Sexually Harassed By Mogul

I remember when me and the other members of the Double Toasted Crew made a joke about Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd having a tryst on the set of ‘Kiss The Girls’. Little did we know there was a much darker, unfunny type of sexual activity going on during the filming of the 1997 Paramount thriller. It turns out the films star Ashley Judd was being sexually harassed by an high ranking exec from a rival studio. Judd had never told anyone about the incidents before revealing them to Variety as a part of their ‘Power of Woman’ issue. According to Judd the mogul would call Judd to have her meet him in a hotel room under the false pretense the meeting was meant to discuss future roles she be good for. Apparently things got worse when that same mogul wanted Judd to watch him take a shower. Judd had a lot to say about the horrible encounter:

“I was sexually harassed by one of our industry’s most famous, admired-slash-reviled bosses. I was making “Kiss the Girls” at the time, and here I was, a declared feminist. I had completed a minor in what was then called women’s studies, which we now call gender studies. And yet I did not recognize at the time what was happening to me. It took years before I could evaluate that incident and realize that there was something incredibly wrong and illegal about it. And I think that’s what’s happening in Hollywood with regard to female crew members, above-the-line and below-the-line talent, and pay disparity. We’re individually and collectively coming to a realization and acceptance that this is an entrenched part of the reality, and I think that talking about it is essential to the process of becoming aware, accepting that this is reality and then ultimately taking action…I beat myself up for a while. This is another part of the process. We internalize the shame. It really belongs to the person who is the aggressor. And so later, when I was able to see what happened, I thought: Oh god, that’s wrong. That’s sexual harassment. That’s illegal. I was really hard on myself because I didn’t get out of it by saying, “OK motherf—er, I’m calling the police.”

If you want to read Judd’s full statement on the incident click the link below to for the Variety article.

[Source: Variety]