Reese Witherspoon assaulted by a director at the age of 16
>> Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Reese Witherspoon assaulted by a director at the age of 16
.@RWitherspoon says memories of abuse have "come back to me very vividly" this wk. She recalls being assaulted by a director at 16 #ELLEWIH pic.twitter.com/3sDGQfAZQJ— Carly Mallenbaum (@ThatGirlCarly) October 17, 2017
Witherspoon spoke Monday night at the 24th annual Elle Women in Hollywood awards held at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, California.
The actress was there to introduce her "Big Little Lies" costar Laura Dern, who was an honoree.
During her remarks, Witherspoon said the Weinstein scandal has been tough on her.
"I have my own experiences that have come back to me very vividly and I have found it hard to sleep, hard to think, hard to communicate," she said. "A lot of the feelings I've been having about anxiety, about being honest, the guilt for not speaking up earlier or taking action."
Witherspoon opened up about her "true disgust at the director who assaulted me when I was 16 years old and anger that I felt at the agents and anger at the agent and producers who made me feel that silence was a condition of my employment."
"And I wish I could tell you that that was an isolated incident in my career, but sadly, it wasn't," she said. "I've had multiple experiences of harassment and sexual assault, and I don't speak about them very often, but after hearing all the stories these past few days and hearing these brave women speak up tonight, the things that we're kind of told to sweep under the rug and not talk about, it's made me want to speak up and speak up loudly because I felt less alone this week than I've ever felt in my entire career."
