Jurnee Smollett says she has been sexually harassed on nearly every Hollywood set she’s worked on.
Jurnee Smollett says that prior to her upcoming HBO series, Lovecraft Country, she has only been on one set where she was not sexually harassed. Smollett shared her story during a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“I don’t know that I can confidently say that I worked on one job prior to Lovecraft — from the time I was 12 on — where I hadn’t been sexually harassed, whether it was by an [assistant director], a co-star, director, producer …” she said.
At 33, Smollett has had a successful career in Hollywood. She’s starred in Eve’s Bayou, The Great Debaters (2007), as well as Friday Night Lights, Birds of Prey, and True Blood.
“Like, a guy saying before we’re about to do this love scene, ‘Hey, your tits are going to be hanging in the wind,’ is not OK,” she said, before revealing she had stepped away from a project because the misconduct was so bad. “And they let me out.”
“And I don’t apologize,” she said. “I’ll be like, ‘Listen, this fake-ass sexual harassment meeting that we’re having, I’m going to raise my hand now and let you guys know that the standards that they’re setting are bare minimum.'”
Lovecraft Country premieres on HBO, August 16. Thoughts?
