Through Entertainment Weekly, actress Olivia Munn shared a personal essay on Thursday calling for what she refers to as a "zero-tolerance" response to sexual abuse in the entertainment industry. Those at the top, she argues, must push back against protecting abusers and "a vicious circle of victim-blaming."
In November, the Los Angeles Times broke Munn and five other women’s accusations of sexual misconduct against filmmaker Brett Ratner. Munn, who is known for her roles in X-Men, Magic Mike, and Iron Man, met Ratner on the set of After the Sunset through a friend.
While helping drop off some food in Ratner’s trailer, the young actress encountered the director who told her not to leave. "He walked out...with his belly sticking out, no pants on, shrimp cocktail in one hand and he was furiously masturbating in the other," Munn told the LA Times. "And before I literally could even figure out where to escape or where to look, he ejaculated." Ratner left Warner Bros after the allegations against him by Munn and the other women came to light.
"My experience with [director] Brett Ratner enforced in me the belief that I deserve to be here and that I should be able to reach for my dreams without being harassed and abused, no matter what economic or social position I find myself in," Munn wrote in her new essay.
Munn also wrote about how the entertainment industry must enforce actionable consequences against men like Ratner and Harvey Weinstein for their abuse. She argues that by requiring things like equal pay, the industry can undermine age-old ideas that men are more valuable than women. "This is not a 'women's' issue, this is an abuse-of-power issue," Munn wrote. "Until we eradicate the diseased roots of our infrastructure and make foundational, systemic changes, nothing will change."
You can read her powerful op-ed here.
