'How to Get Away With Murder' Star Karla Souza Says She Was Sexually Assaulted by Director

The alleged rape occurred while she was working in Mexico.

Actress Karla Souza
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NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 15: Actress Karla Souza attends AOL Build Speaker Series - Karla Souza at AOL Studios In New York on February 15, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Paul Zimmerman/Getty Images)

Actress Karla Souza

The list of men in Hollywood who have taken advantage of women is endless. On Tuesday, How to Get Away with Murder star Karla Souza told CNN en Español that she was raped by a director in the early days of her career, Cosmopolitan reports. According to Souza, the incident happened when she was shooting in Mexico. While she didn’t reveal the name of the director, she did say that they were both staying in the same hotel, though the rest of the cast was in a different one.

“He knocked at my door saying he wanted to go over some scenes and I thought it’s 2 a.m., it’s not appropriate and it’s something that shouldn’t be happening,” she recalled.

Souza told CNN en Español that she declined to let him in when he knocked again. The following day, he “decided not to shoot my scene” and “started to humiliate me in front of others on the set.” She explained that his “total abuse of power” went on for around a month, until she felt like she had to cave to his advances. “[I let him] kiss me, to touch me in ways I did not want him to touch me,” she said, “and in one of those instances, he attacked me violently and yes, he raped me.”

HTGAWM co-star Viola Davis showed her support for Souza on Wednesday.

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