Afton Williamson Named Names In A Post Detailing Why She Left ABC’s “The Rookie” After Being Sexually Harassed And Assaulted
You don’t walk away from a leading role on a popular network drama unless you have a very good reason. Unfortunately, Afton Williamson who plays Talia Bishop on ABC’s The Rookie had several good reasons to bounce. Afton announced she won’t be returning for the show’s second season with an Instagram post. Afton claims she quit because she was sexually harassed by a recurring guest star and faced racial discrimination, harassment, and was sexually assaulted by the show’s lead hairdresser. And though she reported the incidents to HR and showrunner Alexi Hawley, she was still asked to act opposite Demetrius Grosse, the actor she claims sexually harassed her. Even though she was previously told he had been fired! So now she’s naming names, saying “now is the best time in the world to be a woman and I have a platform so it’s time to use my Voice” proving that ignoring workplace harassment in this day and age, is a real rookie mistake.
Here’s Afton’s post detailing her reasons for leaving The Rookie and naming Demetrius as the person who sexually harassed her, and hair department head Sally Nicole Ciganovich as the person she was “racially bullied and discriminated against and sexually assaulted by”, with the alleged assault occurring during the show’s wrap party.
I still can’t get over the producers telling her that Demetrius had been fired then handing her a script asking her to do scenes with her alleged abuser. No wonder she’s gone full fuck ya’ll. It sounds like there was some Andrea Zuckerman-level mishandling of the situation, all the way up the chain. According to Entertainment Tonight:
News that Williamson would be leaving the series first broke in late July. Her character, TO Talia Bishop, was a significant character during the show’s first season, becoming a mentor to Nathan Fillion’s John Nolan.
Williamson, in her first post addressing her decision to quit, claimed that she went through the proper channels when she became the target of the alleged misconduct, but that her concerns went unheard.
“The Sexual Harassment though reported directly to the Showrunner/EP [Alexi Hawley] remained undocumented and was not reported to HR as promised,” Williams wrote. “HR protocol was never adhered to following the above reports given by me to my Showrunner/EP and an investigation was never issued for any of my claims.”
ABC claims that the show’s production company, Entertainment One informed them they were conducting an internal investigation back in June (an investigation that is still ongoing). ABC President Karey Burke says she’s confident the investigation will be done properly.
“I can trust the investigation because it’s being done by a third party. I’m hopeful that those results are independent and trustworthy and anticipate that they will be. Those conclusions will help guide us in future… as far as communications,” Burke said Monday. “We have an HR partner that is available to every single one of our shows… I would hope someone on that set would feel comfortable going to the HR partner on that show.”
But she did go to HR! And also, if the show’s own production company is doing the investigation, how is that a third party? What, did the production company turn around and farm it out to Geico or some shit? What a load of crap. Meanwhile, Afton’s thankful for the support she’s received and is focused on the future.
And as for Demetrius and Sally Nicole, neither of them have made themselves available for comment but Demetrius is going the age-old route of emphasizing his status as family man in the face of the allegations.
This was posted the same day as Afton’s revelation. That baby’s like, “This is the last time you’re gonna use me as a human shield. The last time!”
Pic: Wenn.com