For months Eliza Dushku kept quiet about her accusations of harassment against Bull co-star, Michael Weatherly. Though she’d raised her claims with him, with her manager, with the show’s producers, a US$9.5 million (roughly AU$13.3 million) settlement with network CBS blocked her from taking them further.
But this week, Dushku felt she just couldn’t keep quiet any longer.
In an op-ed published in The Boston Globe, the former star of Buffy and Bring it On, wrote that she was compelled to speak out against Weatherly, after The New York Times published details of the “secret” settlement earlier this week.
In the blistering piece, Dushku claims she was sacked from the legal drama shortly after raising allegations of on-set harassment against the 50-year-old star. Harassment that claims became workplace bullying and left her “feeling dread” whenever he was near.
It began early on, she wrote.
“He regularly commented on my ‘ravishing’ beauty, following up with audible groans, oohing and aahing. As the [set] tapes show, he liked to boast about his sperm and vasectomy reversals (‘I want you to know, Eliza, I have powerful swimmers’),” she wrote. “Weatherly had a habit of exaggerated eye-balling and leering at me; once, he leaned into my body and inhaled, smelling me in a dramatic swoon. As was caught on tape, after I flubbed a line, he shouted in my face, ‘I will take you over my knee and spank you like a little girl.'”
Dushku also referred to an incident in which Weatherly, while filming a scene involving a windowless van, said he would take her to his “rape van, filled with all sorts of lubricants and long phallic things”. She also alleged that he played provocative songs as she walked onto set, joked about having a threesome with her and referred to her simply as “legs”.
Dushku had signed on to the series for three episodes in March 2017, with plans to become a regular. But according to her op-ed and The New York Times article, days after she approached Weatherly to express her discomfort at his comments, her character, criminal defence lawyer J.P. Nunnelly, was written out of the show.
“Weatherly texted CBS Television President David Stapf about 40 minutes after our conversation and asked for what amounted to my being written off the show. Specifically, Weatherly complained that I had a ‘humour deficit’,” she wrote.
“I do not want to hear that I have a ‘humour deficit’ or can’t take a joke. I did not overreact. I took a job and, because I did not want to be harassed, I was fired.”
In a statement issued to The New York Times, Weatherly, most famous for his role in TV hit NCIS, apologised for the pain his “jokes” had caused Dushku.
“During the course of taping our show, I made some jokes mocking some lines in the script,” he said. “When Eliza told me that she wasn’t comfortable with my language and attempt at humour, I was mortified to have offended her and immediately apologised. After reflecting on this further, I better understand that what I said was both not funny and not appropriate and I am sorry and regret the pain this caused Eliza.”
According to Dushku, no apology was ever given.
Dushku became a vocal player in the Hollywood #metoo movement earlier this year, after going public with allegations that she was sexually assaulted by a stunt coordinator while filming the 1994 movie “True Lies”. She was just 12 years old at the time.
“The ever-growing list of sexual abuse and harassment victims who have spoken out with their truths have finally given me the ability to speak out,” she wrote on Facebook in January. “It has been indescribably exhausting, bottling this up inside me for all of these years.”
The man at the centre of the allegations has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
Top Comments
As distressing as the original harrassment and abuse is, it is even more distressing when the individuals and institutions involved maintain their denial, and insist on continuing the cover-ups because they are so afraid of reputational damage.
I agree, the irony is that with a situation like this where there are inappropriate comments but not physical assault, if the perpetrator acknowledged what happened, apologised and learnt from it, everyone would be happy to give them another chance. But when you deny it and cover it up and compound the damage no one wins.
Jokes about rape are never funny and can never be taken 'out of context', so I don't really buy his excuse.
The saying "rape, pillage and plunder" (as used by old timey English and Australians) sees the term "rape" not being used in complete seriousness (likewise "pillage" and "plunder" but no one cares about those crimes). Humor can go awry and I don't think there is any term that is singularly off-limits to humor but I certainly can agree that in a professional setting there is an expectation of professional behavior only.
The guts of the problem here though is that if a crime was committed, the correct and moral course of action is to report it to the police and support the justice system in its prosecution of the case. This of course would have meant the end of the show and the her job with it (due to the public fragility shows have to events such as this). This may seem unfair (and it is) but if we are committed to stamping this behavior out, it is going to come at the cost of personal pain that no matter how small the evidence of #metoo, it is jobs end for all involved in the project each and every time. That will be effective. Not multi-million dollar settlements and the ongoing un-savoriness of people that can't work together being made to well, work together.