Naomie Harris Says A “Huge, Huge Star” Once Sexually Assaulted Her During An Audition
I have been to exactly one audition in my lifetime, and here’s what I remember: the room smelled like wet plaster and there was a bowl of Skittles on the casting director’s table that I was explicitly told not to touch. So basically, it was bad. But on a sliding scale of audition awfulness, that’s nothing. Many #MeToo stories have illuminated how quickly an audition can turn into a literal nightmare if you just so happen to be in a room where boundaries and consent are disregarded and no one says anything. Naomie Harris once again shared her own awful experience during an audition, which also served as a bit of a blind item. According to Naomie, she once found herself in an audition opposite of an extremely famous actor, and the extremely famous actor allegedly acted extremely gross. Making it even worse was the fact that, as Naomie illustrated, no one else in the room did anything about it.
Naomie opened up to The Mail on Sunday about this situation, while promoting the latest Bond film, No Time to Die (she’s played Eve Moneypenny in the past three Bond films). She has previously spoken about this situation, but this time she adds that it was a first and last experience for her, thankfully. Naomie has been in showbiz since the late-80s, and she says that while she’s been around for a while, but she’s only ever had one single #MeToo experience during her career. And yeah, it’s this one that just so happened to feature a huge movie star and a room full of witnesses. via Deadline:
The Oscar-nominated actress said that the actor put his hand up her skirt during the read-through.
She said: “What was so shocking about it was the casting director was there and the director, and of course no one said anything because he was – he is – such a huge star. That was my only #MeToo incident, so I felt very lucky given how rife that behavior was.
“Now things have definitely changed: I was on a project where there was a #MeToo incident and there was no hesitation, [the perpetrator] was immediately removed,” she said.
Naomie continues to refuse to name who the huge star was (or is, technically), and really, it could be anybody. “Well, not just anybody…” said every person in that audition room who watched it all go down and started awkwardly counting ceiling tiles to avoid confronting the situation. She also didn’t drop a hint about the film she was auditioning for, like if she got the part, or if it was a role that went to someone else. The only evidence we have is that it was an actor who both was and is a huge star. So it’s not someone who has been canceled or fallen off the radar. And, it’s an actor, not a director or producer who was standing in and reading lines (for once, that grimy shower drain plug Harvey Weinstein isn’t the most obvious culprit in an audition-based #MeToo story). Well, I think we can safely narrow it down to literally anybody but two huge Hollywood actors: the Geico gecko (because he’s tiny – he could barely lean against her ankle) and Keanu Reeves. How do I know Keanu is not the one? Because there’s no way, he’s the only unquestionably good one left. Everyone but him and that lizard is a suspect.
Pic: Wenn.com