Brett Ratner: Six women including Olivia Munn accuse director of sexual harassment
Munn alleges the director masturbated in front of her in his trailer when she went to deliver a meal
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Your support makes all the difference.Six women have come forward to accuse director Brett Ratner of sexual harassment and misconduct.
The Los Angeles Times has published the accusations from all six women in full; among them are X-Men star Olivia Munn, who said that while visiting the set of Ratner's 2004 film After the Sunset when she was still an aspiring actress, he masturbated in front of her in his trailer when she went to deliver a meal.
She contacted a lawyer, but said she was dissuaded to take action, being a fledgeling actress going up against a powerful director. She wrote about the incident in her 2010 collection of essays, without naming Ratner; Ratner later identified himself as the director on TV and claimed he had "banged" her, which he later said was not true.
Munn said the persistent false rumours they had been intimate infuriated her, prompting her to speak out in support of other women who are "brave enough to speak up".
Ratner is a major force in Hollywood both as director, behind the likes of Rush Hour and X-Men: The Last Stand, and producer of multiple high-profile projects, including The Revenant and Prison Break.
"It feels as if I keep going up against the same bully at school who just won't quit," she stated. "You just hope that enough people believe the truth and for enough time to pass so that you can't be connected to him anymore."
Actress Natasha Henstridge said that when she was 19 years old, at Ratner's apartment to hang out with friends, she awoke on the couch to find her friends had gone; she alleges that Ratner blocked the doorway with his body, began touching himself, and forced her to perform oral sex.
"He strong-armed me in a real way. He physically forced himself on me," she said. "At some point, I gave in and he did his thing."
Actress Jaime Ray Newman said she encountered Ratner in 2005 on a first class flight. The filmmaker allegedly swapped seats so he could be next to her, before loudly describing sex acts he wanted to perform on her in explicit detail. Newman also said he showed her nude photos of his then-girlfriend.
Actress Katharine Towne also alleges "aggressive" advances from the director in which he followed her into the bathroom. Eri Sasaki, an extra on Ratner's film Rush Hour 2, alleges he repeatedly asked her to go in a bathroom with him, running his index finger down her bare stomach, offering a line on the film and saying, "Don't you want to be famous?"
Jorina King was also an extra on the film, claiming that Ratner asked her to come to his trailer, on the premise he wanted to discuss giving her a speaking part, and told her he needed to see her breasts. "He feels entitled, that this is what he wants, this is how it is going to be, and this feels like normal business to him," she said.
Ratner, through his attorney Martin Singer, "categorically" and individually disputes the women's accounts.
"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 in a 10-page letter to The Times. "Furthermore, no woman has ever requested or received any financial settlement from my client."
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