Reese speaks out over assault

ACTRESS Reese Witherspoon has alleged she was sexually assaulted by a director when she was 16, but was told to remain silent by agents and producers.

Fellow star Jennifer Lawrence also shared a story of how she was forced to participate in a nude line-up.

As Hollywood reels from the Harvey Weinstein scandal, Witherspoon opened up about her career in a powerful speech.

“I have my own experiences that have come back to me very vividly and I find it really hard to sleep, hard to think, hard to communicate a lot of the feelings that I’ve been having about anxiety, honesty, the guilt for not speaking up earlier,” she said at an Elle Women in Hollywood event.

“(I feel) true disgust at the director who assaulted me when I was 16 years old and anger at the agents and the producers who made me feel that silence was a condition of my employment.

“And I wish that I could tell you that was an isolated incident in my career, but sadly it wasn’t.

“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 about things that we’re kind of told to sweep under the rug and not to talk about, it’s made me want to speak up and speak up loudly because I actually felt less alone this week than I have ever felt in my entire career.”

At the same event, The Hunger Games star Lawrence revealed a female producer forced her to do a nude line-up with five women and told her to lose weight.

“When I was much younger and starting out, I was told by producers of a film to lose 15 pounds (6.8kg) in two weeks,” the 27-year-old said.

I WISH THAT I COULD TELL YOU THAT WAS AN ISOLATED INCIDENT IN MY CAREER, BUT SADLY IT WASN’T REESE WITHERSPOON

“During this time, a female producer had me do a nude line-up with about five women who were much, much thinner than me. We are stood side-byside with only tape on covering our privates.

“After that degrading and humiliating line-up, the female producer told me I should use the naked photos of myself as inspiration for my diet.

“I let myself be treated a certain way because I felt I had to for my career.”

The comments come as dozens of women accused movie titan Weinstein of sexual misconduct, including Ashley Judd, Rose McGowan, Asia Argento, Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow.