Blake Lively has told her own story of sexual harassment amid the Harvey Weinstein scandal that has swept Hollywood.
The former Gossip Girl star told the Los Angeles Times that she was sexually harassed by a makeup artist on the set of a past project, which she did not name, who filmed her while she was sleeping and became inappropriate with her.
“He was saying inappropriate things, insisting on putting my lipstick on with his finger,” she told the newspaper. “I was sleeping there one night and woke up and he was filming me. I was dressed, but it was a very voyeuristic and terrifying thing to do.”
Blake claims she complained to producers on the set of the project for three months and thought something was being done to remedy the situation when they called her to her trailer. However, she was stunned when they instead brought up an incident of her dog defecating in her dressing room, telling her ‘it’s very serious and we can’t have it happen again’.
The 30-year-old actress then appealed to her lawyer, which led to the abandonment of the project by the make-up artist. But no further punishment was meted out, with Blake adding: “Our unit production manager wrote him a letter of recommendation because nobody wanted any bad blood.”
Blake’s decision to tell the story came after she spoke about allegations surrounding Weinstein and claims that he sexually abused and harassed legions of women in Hollywood over a span of three decades.
The actress has never worked with Weinstein professionally, but has been friends with the movie mogul in the past and posed for photos with him at the 2017 Time 100 gala in April.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Blake said: “That was never my experience with Harvey in any way, and I think if people heard those stories…I believe in humanity enough to think that it just wouldn’t have continued. I’ve never heard stories like this – I’ve never heard anything specific – but it’s devastating to hear. The first 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 them seriously.”
The mother-of-two added: “As important as it is to stay mad about this, it’s also important to say it exists everywhere, so please remember to look everywhere. This is not just one incident. It can’t happen, it shouldn’t happen, and it happens in every industry… It’s important that women are furious right now. It’s important that there’s an uprising. It’s important that we don’t condone that and that we don’t focus on one or two or three or four stories, it’s important that we focus on humanity in general and say, ‘This is unacceptable’.
