Sarah Jessica Parker has recalled “countless” experiences of inappropriate behaviour from male colleagues on film and TV sets – including from one “very big movie star”.
The Sex And The City and Divorce actress spoke about the impact of the #MeToo campaign in an interview on the NPR show Fresh Air, saying it had made her reassess certain incidents.
She said she has only in recent months started to recognise the behaviour for what it was.
“It really wasn’t, I would say, until about six or eight months ago that I started recognising countless experiences of men behaving poorly, inappropriately, and all the ways that I had made it possible to keep coming to work or to remain on set, or to simply… just push it down, push it away, find a little space for it and move on,” she said.
“[I] really just didn’t allow it to consume me. To be honest, I don’t know why I either wasn’t courageous or more destroyed by some of the things that I was privy to, that I was on the receiving end of.”
Speaking about the behaviour of the “very big movie star”, who was not named, Parker said in the end her agent threatened she would walk off set.
“I think no matter how evolved or how modern I thought I was… I didn’t feel entirely in a position – no matter what my role was on set – I didn’t feel as powerful as the man who was behaving inappropriately,” she said.
“Which… strikes me as just stunning to say out loud, because there were plenty of occasions where it was happening and I was in a different position and I was as powerful.
“I mean, I had every right to say, ‘This is inappropriate’. I could have felt safe in going to a superior.
“And, in fact, I will say, when there was a situation with somebody and I did go to my agent – because I felt I was no longer able to convey how uncomfortable this was making me, how inappropriate it was… within hours everything had changed…
“He said to them, ‘If this continues, I have sent her a ticket, a one-way ticket out of this city’ – where I was shooting – ‘and she will not be returning’.”