Actress Jenny McCarthy came forward with sexual misconduct accusations about Steven Seagal. McCarthy detailed the incident on her radio show.
Actor and producer Steven Seagal continue to grow with four women accusing him of sexual harassment. However, the accusations against Seagal are not new, and he had previously denied the claims back in the 90s.
Coming forward with an accusation
Although Jenny McCarthy first accused Steven Seagal of sexual misconduct back in 1998, amid new allegations against the actor, she detailed her experience.
During her show on SiriusXM, the actress recalled the incident. It occurred in 1995 during an audition for ‘Under Siege 2.’
The actress explained she was alone in the room with Seagal when he asked her to sit next to him on a couch. After she declined, McCarthy says he began talking about his mission trips to Asia in an attempt to get her to sit with him.
“He keeps bragging and bragging about himself, and watching out with one eye to see if I take the bait,” she says.
“So he says to me then, ‘You know, this part has nudity in it, and I can’t really tell what your body looks like in that dress you’re wearing'”
According to McCarthy, she told the actor that she asked her agent specifically if there was nudity in the project, and the answer was no. To which she says Seagal responded that “there is off-camera nudity,” and asked her to lower her dress so he could see her breasts.
The actress then McCarthy says she walked out of the audition, but claims Seagal followed her and warned her not to tell anyone, “or else.”
“It was so disheartening. And I thought about like, ‘I was the last girl that day. How many girls had to take off their clothes? How many girls had to do more?’” McCarthy stated.
McCarthy told the same story to Movieline in 1998.
Avalanche of accusations
In late October, Seagal joined the list of major Hollywood figures accused of sexual misconduct in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
The first to come forward with accusations was Inside Edition correspondent Lisa Guerrero on ‘Newsweek’, who accused the actor of trying to proposition her.
Guerrero was allegedly asked to audition for a role in one of Seagal’s movies in his Beverly Hills home. Once she arrived, the actor allegedly answered the door in a silk robe.
The audition reportedly went well. She received a call from her agent saying that the part was hers, but she had to go back to Seagal’s home for a private rehearsal. She declined.
Then, on November 3, actress Emmy winning actress Julianna Margulies shared an experience similar to McCarthy’s on the radio to Jenny Hutt.
She explains she was asked to attend an audition for which a female casting director would be in attendance for the audition, but that when she arrived Seagal was alone.
“Saw his gun; I had never seen a gun in real life. Got out of there unscathed … Don’t know how I got out of that hotel room. I sorta screamed my way out,” she claimed.
As a result of that experience, Margulies said she later refused to take a purported work meeting with Harvey Weinstein in his hotel room.
And on November 8, actress Portia de Rossi took to Twitter to share a similar experience surrounding the actor.
“My final audition for a Steven Seagal movie took place in his office,” she recalled.
“He told me how important it was to have chemistry off-screen. 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.’”
Long-known story
Though the allegations are rising to the surface in the wake of the Weinstein scandal and its aftermath, Seagal was accused of inappropriate behavior long before.
Earlier this year, actress Katherine Heigl told Jimmy Kimmel starring alongside Seagal in the 1995 movie ‘Under Siege 2’, and a crude joke he made.
“I had just turned 16 on this movie. He said, ‘You know, Katie, I’ve got girlfriends your age,’” Heigl recalled.
“I said, ‘isn’t that illegal? And he said, ‘They don’t seem to mind.’”
And back in 2010, actress Jenny McCarthy claimed that Seagal once asked her to remove her clothes during an audition for that same movie, ‘Under Siege 2’.
“I go inside [Seagal’s] office, which has shag carpet and this huge couch, and he’s by himself and says, ‘Sit on my couch,’” McCarthy recalled.
“[He says] ‘So, you were Playmate of the Year?’ Then he said, ‘Take off your dress.’ I just started crying and said, ‘Rent my Playboy video, you a-hole!’ and ran out to the car.”
Also, back in 1996, a Penthouse magazine featured an article in which numerous women also accused Seagal of sexual misconduct.
Seagal’s lawyer, Marty Singer—who currently represents stars like Ratner—denied the claims, calling them “false, fabricated and defamatory.”
Source: Los Angeles Time