Rachel McAdams and Selma Blair have come forward with their own allegations of sexual harassment against James Toback.
For those keeping count, over 200 women have spoken out about the director’s predatory ways, including Julianne Moore!
In a Vanity Fair piece published on Thursday, the two actresses accused the 72-year-old of sexually harassing them after reading for a role in his 2001 movie Harvard Man.
Related: Ashley Judd Talks Harvey Weinstein In New Interview
Rachel described being 21 when she met with James at his hotel room after her first audition:
“Pretty quickly the conversation turned quite sexual and he said, ‘You know, I just have to tell you. I have masturbated countless times today thinking about you since we met at your audition’… Then he went to the bathroom and left me with some literature to read about him. When he came back he said, ‘I just jerked off in the bathroom thinking about you. Will you show me your pubic hair?’ I said no.”
She continued:
“Eventually, I just excused myself. I can’t remember how long I was there. I felt like I was there forever. This has been such a source of shame for me├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥that I didn’t have the wherewithal to get up and leave. I kept thinking, ‘This is going to become normal any minute now. This is going to all make sense. This is all above board somehow.’ Eventually I just realized that it wasn’t. I was very lucky that I left and he didn’t actually physically assault me in any way.”
The Doctor Strange actress also recalled feeling anger over her agent sending her to him in the first place, saying she knew of his predatory behavior:
“I got up very early in the morning and called my agent at the time. And she was outraged. She was very sorry. But she also said, ‘I can’t believe he did it again. This isn’t the first time that this has happened. He did this the last time that he was in town. He did this to one of my other actresses.’ That is when I got mad, because I felt like I was kind of thrown into the lion’s den and given no warning that he was a predator. This was something that he was known for doing already. I was so surprised to hear that.”
Selma, who was one of the anonymous women in the original Los Angeles Time piece, had a similar experience meeting with Toback in his hotel room:
“It was about 40 minutes in and he said, ‘Will you trust me? I cannot continue to work with you unless you trust me.’ He said, ‘I need you to take your clothes off. I need you to do this monologue naked.'”
Despite the character being a lawyer in the courtroom, he continued to pressure her:
“He said, ‘Because I need to see how your body moves. How comfortable you are with your body. This is where I start training you.’ I told him I was uncomfortable. But he continued to coax me├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥saying that this was in no way a come-on. This was part of training. He wanted to make me a good actress. He wanted to make me comfortable. I thought, ‘Well, my representation sent me to see him. He must be really important.’ I took off my sweater. I was so private about my body. I do remember looking down at the script and seeing my bare chest and not being able to focus on anything but the words and my face being so hot and puffy and feeling so ashamed.”
The Cruel Intentions star explained she tried to leave, but he wouldn’t let her:
“As I was telling him, ‘Guess I better get out of here . . .’ he sat down on the bed and said, ‘No, you have to talk to me.’ He started to rub his penis through his pants and asked, ├óΓé¼╦£Would you f**k me?’ I went to leave and he got up and blocked the door. He said, ‘You have to do this for me. You cannot leave until I have release.’ I said, ‘What do I have to do? I cannot touch you. I cannot have sex with you.’ He said, ├óΓé¼╦£It’s O.K. I can come in my pants. I have to rub up against your leg. You have to pinch my nipples. And you have to look into my eyes.’ I thought, ‘Well, if I can get out of here without being raped . . .'”
Selma further described how he “raped” her leg:
“He walked me back to the bed. He sat me down. He got on his knees. And he continued to press so hard against my leg. He was greasy and I had to look into those big brown eyes. I tried to look away, but he would hold my face. So I was forced to look into his eyes. And I felt disgust and shame, and like nobody would ever think of me as being clean again after being this close to the devil. His energy was so sinister.”
James then told her a story about threatening another woman who “went against” him, recalling him saying:
“There is a girl who went against me. She was going to talk about something I did. I am going to tell you, and this is a promise, if she ever tells anybody, no matter how much time she thinks went by, I have people who will pull up in a car, kidnap her, and throw her in the Hudson River with cement blocks on her feet. You understand what I’m talking about, right?”
Absolutely horrifying!!
Selma was prompted to come forward publicly with the accusations after he denied his behavior:
“When he called these women liars, and said he didn’t recall meeting them and that the behavior alleged could not be attributed to him, I just felt rage and an obligation to speak publicly now.”
We applaud their bravery!
You need to read their accounts in full HERE.
[Image via FayesVision/Adriana M. Barraza/Dave Bedrosian/Future Image/WENN.]
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