Sarah Jessica Parker Reveals How She Dealt With a ‘Big Movie Star’ Behaving Inappropriately on Set
A previous version of the story stated the incident happened on the Sex and the City set. A spokesperson from Fresh Air confirms that is not the case. The story has been updated.
In a new interview with NPR's Fresh Air, Sarah Jessica Parker says she's had “countless experiences of men behaving poorly, inappropriately” throughout her career.
While discussing the #MeToo movement, per the Evening Standard, Parker says that she's experienced inappropriate behavior on sets in the past. In fact, she cites a “very big, big movie star” was once so "inappropriate" that she went to her agent about it.
On the Television Set of "Sex and the City"
“I did go to my agent," she says in the interview. "Because I felt I was no longer able to convey how uncomfortable this was making me, how inappropriate it was and…within hours everything had changed.”
“[My agent] said to [the actor], 'If this continues, I have sent her a ticket, a one-way ticket out of this city—where I was shooting—and she will not be returning,'” she continues. Parker doesn't name the star.
“I think no matter how evolved or how modern I thought I was... I didn’t feel entirely in a position—no matter what my role was on set. I didn’t feel as powerful as the man who was behaving inappropriately, which just strikes me as just stunning to say out loud, because there were plenty of occasions where it was happening and I was in a different position and I was as powerful," she says.
Parker continues, “It really wasn’t until about six or eight months ago that I started recognizing countless experiences of men behaving poorly, inappropriately, and all the ways that I had made it possible to keep coming to work or to remain on set, or to simply, as I described it, just push it down, push it away, find a little space for it and move on."
“I would try to find ways with language [to say no]…. I remember in a hotel once I asked a male friend of mine if he would stay in a hotel room with me and just answer the phone and simply say I wasn’t there. I don’t recall saying no," she says. "This is very weird about this and I don’t know if I’m ashamed of that, or if I simply found a host of other words that said no in other ways.”
It's unfortunate—and sadly unsurprising—that this even happens to stars as big as Parker, but I'm glad she's speaking out and continuing an important conversation.
Originally Appeared on Glamour
