Portia’s shocking Seagal claim
GEELONG- RAISED actress Portia de Rossi is the latest woman to come out with sexual harassment allegations against Hollywood actor Steven Seagal.
The Arrested Development star took to Twitter to share one particularly disturbing casting experience she had with the Under Siege actor.
She tweeted: “My final audition for a Steven Segal [sic] movie took place in his office. He told me how important it was to have chemistry offscreen as he sat me down and unzipped his leather pants.”
Horrified, the actress says she ran out and called her agent, who she says was apparently unsurprised by de Rossi’s story.
“Unfazed, [the agent] replied, ‘well, I didn’t know if he was your type’,” wrote de Rossi.
According to Variety, reps for de Rossi and Seagal could not immediately be reached for comment.
Social media users have responded to the allegations with many in shock over the agent’s response. One Twitter user asked if de Rossi had fired the agent and another demanding she name and shame.
The agent’s role in and lack of concern over the incident is perhaps indicative of how widespread and accepted this kind of behaviour is in Hollywood.
Meanwhile, journalist Lisa Guerrero, who accused Seagal of sexual misconduct in 1996, applauded de Rossi for sharing her story.
“More actresses join me in publicly sharing our horrible and humiliating experiences with Steven Segal,” she tweeted.
DeRossi’s allegations come just days after The Good Wife’s Julianna Margulies revealed that Seagal asked her to come to hotel room to “rehearse” when she was just 23. She claims the actor showed her “his gun”.
Grey’s Anatomy star Katherine Heigl has also spoken out about being sexually harassed by Seagal when she was just 16.