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In the film industry, accusations were a thing since 1921; however, the speculations about sexual assault reached the peak in 1977, when Roman Polanski left the US after being accused of sexually abusing a minor. Roman Polanski was asked to be expelled after a photographer accused him of raping her violently when 13.
In the 1980s, Victor Salva (filmmaker) was sentenced to serve fifteen years in jail after he sexually abused Nathan Forrest, a then 12 years old actor from “Clownhouse”, and forced him to have oral sex with a fourteen years old boy.
In 2014, Bryan Singer (film director) was accused of sexually abusing men at the parties in a mansion located in Los Angles. Michael F. Egan stated that men were asked to swim completely naked without any swimsuit at those parties. Moreover, he testified that Bryan Singer forced him to inhale cocaine and raped him when he was fourteen.
During the last decade, accusations of sexual abuse and harassment proliferated, especially against filmmakers and producers. In 2017, Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexually abusing eighty women or more. This accusation caused a triumph and resulted in the formation of the “Me Too Movement.” Harvey Weinstein, after more than three years of the allegations, is still facing fallouts.
Another accusation arose in 2017, and this was against Ben Affleck, who was accused of groping Hilarie Burton, an MTV host, in 2003, during his appearance in the show called “Total Request Live.” However, Ben apologized for this behavior through a tweet.
The same year, Anthony Rapp (actor) talked about how he was sexually harassed by Kevin Spacey (filmmaker, producer, and actor) in 1986 when Rapp was still a minor. The issue got severe when the technical staff of the TV series “House of cards” made a statement about Spacey frequently harassing the male staff during filming.
The film industry has been filled with sexual harassment accusations, out of which most accusations turned out to be true. However, today people have started speaking about such issues openly, so it is hoped that things may get better in the future.
