Eliza Dushku talks about sexual creator at work.
The 40-year-old actress testified to the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday about suffering “live continuous sexual harassment” while he appeared on CBS’s. Bull And be “faced in silence when I tried to address it.”
The hearing, titled “Silenced: How Forced Arbitration Holds Victims of Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment in the Shadows,” was held for lawmakers weighing new legislation to eliminate forced arbitration clauses in employment, consumer and civil rights cases. Dushku, who accused co-star Michael Weatherly in harassment, was fired within 24 hours of complaining. When she fought it, she was forced into arbitration, according to her contract. Her reported settlement, $ 9.5 million settlement, which was roughly the payment of her contract, resulted in a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that limited her to discussing the case publicly.
Because Dushku has testified, she is able to give more detail than her NDA agreement typically permits. She detailed how CBS “aggressively pursued” her for the role of JP Nunnelly, who was said to have been created for her.
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The first week, in 2017, however, she said the harassment began with “big, sexualized and lovely verbal assault” by Weatherly, 53. She said it was “live continuous sexual harassment” and “unlike Something else “that she had lived on. A trend as a working actor since the age of 9.
Dushku has a six-year commitment to appear in the show playing a smart, strong, confident lawyer. She pleaded that Weatherly, also a producer, would call her “legs”, smell her and “learning” look her up and down.
D Buffy the Vampire Slayer And Angel Alum recalled how once, in front of 100 cast and crew members, Weatherly said he would, “Take me to his rape van and use lube and long phallic things on me, and take me over his knee and spank me like a little Girl. “Another time, he told her his” strains are strong swimmers. “
Dushku spoke of what it was like “mindful” and how she was “scared to go to work.” She was afraid to withdraw her “job at risk” and hurt her professional reputation.
She said the things reached a climax when she delivered a monologue in court, which she put in a lot of preparation. When she finished the scene, she said that Waterly cried that he and his buddy wanted to have a threesome with her. They “started teasing penis jousting while the camera was still rolling,” she said.
The toxicity spread, she said. During a coffee break, she said that a crew member came up to her and said, “I’m with Bull,” the name of Weatherley’s character, Dr. Jason Bull. – I want to have a threesome with you too.
Dushku was “scared” and began to dress at work in loose clothing, including sweat, which she had worn from her husband. After discussing the situation with her manager, she decided to speak with Weatherly directly and did, nervously asking him to be her ally – and note down the sexualized comments.
“He responded in a fantastic shock, ‘No one is more respected by women than me. I grew up with sisters,'” she said.
She later learned that 40 minutes after the exchange, Weatherly sent a text to the head of CBS Studios, saying that Dushku had a “humor deficit” and he did not want her on the show. Although the head of the studio responded that Dushku was “great and made the improvement”, she was suspended the next day.
She said, because of a mandatory arbitration clause in her contract – which she did not know existed – she was “silenced” and forced into arbitration when she pursued legal action.
“I have worked as an actress since I was a child and signed countless contracts negotiated on my behalf, but never understood that there were mandatory arbitration clauses that would be used to keep what happened to me a secret and would protect CBS and the “Sexual harassment perpetrator, who has blatantly retaliated against me for trying to stop the harassment in my workplace,” Dushku said.
“I was shocked to know that I signed my right to a public forum before I take a job,” she said. “Who would ever invent such an item? Who were these items needed to do and protect? It suddenly became very clear: not me.”
Dushku said that although there is even a video of the harassment, “caught verbatim on the tape,” it is all under lock and key due to the arbitration clause.
In 2018, Dushku reached the reported $ 9.5 million settlement, which was roughly what she would make if she stayed at the show. However, she said this was not finished for what happened to her reputation for speaking up – and not being able to have her day in court.
“Evil to the day when it’s referred to my career, my life’s work, my achievements as an actor are ignored,” she said. “I’m reduced to being ‘Eliza Dushku, the actress for which is paid off Allegedly Get sexually harassed on a TV series. ‘ “This was not the result I wanted or ever expected, but because of binding arbitration it will never be real justice for me and for countless other victims of sexual harassment and assault.”
Bull, Starring Weatherly, continues to air on CBS. For his part, he publicly denied that he had anything to do with what Dushku was written off from the performance. However, he admitted to having engaged in behavior that was “both not funny and not appropriate” and said he was sorry for “the pain this caused Eliza.”
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