Thandie Newton Recalls The Time She Was Groped By A Male Co-Star

During a recent interview with W, actress Thandie Newton shared the shocking story of an early-career audition in which a film director "had a camera shooting up my skirt and asked me to touch my tits and think about the guy making love to me in the scene." Though Newton rightly thought the situation was "a little weird," she went along with it because she'd "done weird stuff before," and there was a female casting director in the room. Years later, Newton found out the director had been showing her audition tape to guests at his house as a form of creepy post-poker game entertainment. Now the actress, who won a BAFTA for her performance in the 2004 film Crash, has said that in an entirely separate incident, she was sexually assaulted by a male co-star. "I've literally been in situations where a co-actor has groped me and tried to engage me and I'm like 'what the hell, I've got a kid. I've got one kid and a husband - what are you doing?'" Newton told the Press Association. "It's a widespread problem in every single industry, in every single place," she added. Newton also revealed that she was once advised by a movie publicist not to speak out about issues like sexual abuse because, the publicist reasoned, "people associate you with a bum out." Inspiringly, Newton chose to ignore this advice so she could raise awareness of this repugnant and far-reaching problem and potentially help other women affected by it. "Being associated with a bum out, that's a sacrifice I'm making because yeah you're right, people want to open a magazine so they can be titillated," Newton told the Press Association. "I don't want to do that because I'm interested in the one person who reads that and will protect themselves better and be more aware."