Director and producer Brett Ratner has been accused of sexual harassment and misconduct by six women. The group of actresses, including Olivia Munn, came forward with their stories in a Los Angeles Times report published on Wednesday.
In the wake of the accusations studio and movie, deals have been called off, as Ratner faces backlash and critics.
Ratner’s history of sexual misconduct and harassment
Bret Ratner, director of the ‘Rush Hour’ franchise and producer of films such as ‘The Revenant’ and ‘Horrible Bosses,’ has been accused of sexual misconduct by six women in a report published by Los Angeles.
The women’s anecdotes vary, however, they all expose Ratne performing aggressive sexual overtures or masturbating in front of them.
Actress Natasha Henstridge recalls an incident when she was 19 and Ratner was in his early twenties. The pair was hanging with friends at Ratner’s New York apartment. She fell asleep and awoketo find only Ratner. She recalled that the director stopped her from leaving the apartment and started touching himself and forced her to perform oral sex.
“He strong-armed me in a real way. He physically forced himself on me. At some point, I gave in and he did his thing.” Years later, Henstridge went to audition for ‘Prison Break,’ which Ratner executive produced, under the fear of encountering him, and she did.
“And he just acted like we were old friends from back in the day in New York, saying, ‘I haven’t seen you in years,'” she said. “Auditioning is already bad enough. But trying to focus on the work, I just felt sick.”
Actress Olivia Munn also came forward with accusations in the report. Munn said her first experience with Ratner came when she was an up-and-comer herself.
In 2004, while visiting the set of Ratner’s film ‘After the Sunset’, Munn was asked to drop off food in the director’s trailer as a favor. She was told he would not be there, but when she arrived, she found that was not the case and found him naked and masturbating.
“And before I literally could even figure out where to escape or where to look, he ejaculated,” she said.Munn recalled fleeing the trailer and telling the story to the person who asked to drop the food and his response showed no surprise by the story.
Munn told her attorney and was legally advised not to pursue a case against a powerful director. Munn included this anecdote in her 2010 book of essays, ‘Suck It, Wonder Woman!’, though she kept the director’s name in anonymity.
Then in 2011, Ratner came forward and said that the story was about him before claiming that he and Munn used to date. “I banged her a few times . . . but I forgot her,” he said. Days later, Ratner admitted to Howard Stern that he had lied about dating Munn: “I felt horrible,” he said.
Actress Katherine Towne described an aggressive come-on by Ratner, as well as actress Jaime Ray Newman who claimed that Ratner “graphically” described giving her oral sex during an Air Canada flight.
Two women, Jorina King and Eri Sasaki, said Ratner made sexual advances toward them on the set of ‘Rush Hour 2’.
The director is denying the accusations
Ratner, through his attorney Martin Singer, strongly denied the allegations to the Times.
“I have represented Mr. Ratner for two decades, and no woman has ever made a claim against him for sexual misconduct or sexual harassment,” Singer said. “Furthermore, no woman has ever requested or received any financial settlement from my client.”
The director, whose film credits include the ‘Rush Hour’ franchise and ‘X-Men: The Last Stand,’ has long cultivated a playboy image.
He has also long bragged about his friendships with the likes of Roman Polanski and James Toback, one convicted rapist and the other recently accused of serial sexual harassment and assault. Media outlets have been chasing the Ratner story over the past weeks.
Israeli actress Gal Gadot dropped out of an awards celebration honoring Ratner. The ‘Wonder Woman’ star was set to present the tree of life award to Ratner at a dinner for the Jewish National Fund on Sunday at the Loews Hollywood Hotel, but she canceled over “schedule problems.”
The statements about Ratner’s behavior are costing him his carreer
The allegations against Ratner will put pressure on the filmmaker and his business partners and have already done it on Warner Bros. and their $450 million deal.
“We are aware of the allegations in the LA Times and are reviewing the situation,” said Jack Horner, a spokesman for Warner Bros. Ratner’s company, RatPac Entertainment, has a $450 million film co-financing pact with Warner Bros. through the RatPac-Dune Entertainment vehicle.
And that’s not it, Playboy Enterprises announced it was putting on hold an upcoming Hugh Hefner biopic Ratner was set to direct. “We are deeply troubled to learn about the accusations against Brett Ratner. We find this kind of behavior completely unacceptable,” read a statement from Playboy’s spokesman John Vlautin.
”We are putting all further development of our projects with RatPac Entertainment on hold until we are able to review the situation further.”
The news also created reactions on social media, some of which included women who accused Weinstein of sexual assault and others who have had various dealing with Ratner.
Source: Los Angeles Times