Portia de Rossi: Steven Seagal Sexually Harassed Me During an Audition

De Rossi tweeted that the actor unzipped his pants in front of her during an audition in his office.

Since the dam finally burst about Harvey Weinstein’s decades of serial sexual harassment and abuse of women in Hollywood, the #MeToo movement of people coming forward with their stories of surviving harassment has taken off and dozens of predatory men across industries have been exposed, many have lost their jobs, and some are under investigation. In a tweet on Thursday afternoon, actress Portia de Rossi (Scandal) — famously married to Ellen DeGeneres — added her name to the growing list of women who’ve come forward about harassment.

My final audition for a Steven Segal movie took place in his office. He told me how important it was to have chemistry off-screen as he sat me down and unzipped his leather pants. I ran out and called my agent. Unfazed, she replied, “well, I didn’t know if he was your type.” — Portia de Rossi (@portiaderossi) November 8, 2017

Plenty of high-profile actresses, including Ashley Judd, Angelina Jolie, Lupita Nyong’o, Daryl Hannah, Rose McGowan, Lena Headey, and Rachel McAdams, have spoken out about abuse at the hands of male Hollywood power players like Weinstein, James Toback, and Brett Ratner, although the list of the accused in Hollywood and the media currently stands at more than 30 men.

Male survivors of assault have also come forward. Nearly two weeks ago Kevin Spacey’s house of cards came crumbling down when actor Anthony Rapp alleged that a 26-year-old Spacey sexually abused him when he was just 14. To deflect from the story that he preyed on a teen boy, Spacey took the scandal as an opportunity to come out, but his strategy backfired and he’s been roundly castigated for it. Since then, more than a dozen accusers have come forward and Spacey has been fired from the hit Netflix series House of Cards.

De Rossi’s tweet is not the first time Seagal’s been accused of sexual harassment. His former assistant Kayden Nguyen sued the action star for sexual harassment and human trafficking in 2010.

While it seems certain that there's more to come regarding de Rossi’s allegations about Seagal, her tweet highlights a systemic problem with power players in the industry, who protect and help each other.