September 18th 2023.
Director Jim Field Smith has recently taken to social media to warn of a major Hollywood actor being protected despite concerns over their behavior. This comes after Get Him To The Greek actor Russell Brand was accused of rape, sexual assault, and physical abuse in a joint investigation with The Times and Channel 4.
Brand denied the "very serious allegations" in a video shared on Friday night, and multiple other women have come forward with similar allegations. In a series of posts on X, Smith claimed that he was once dissuaded from hiring the unnamed actor - referred to as "Actor X" - because other actors had heard of the actor's possible attachment to the project and refused to work in those circumstances.
Smith noted that there were no criminal allegations against the actor, but a pattern of behavior that multiple people had either noticed or been personally subjected to. When Smith asked why this wasn't common knowledge, he was told that speaking up didn't seem to make a difference.
The director then received "fury and thinly-veiled threats" from the actor's powerful agency, which Smith described as "eye-watering, but not unexpected." The actor then contacted Smith directly, and attempted to convince him that any rumors were just gossip.
Smith said that he was motivated to share his story after the allegations against Brand became public, and insisted that it is not the responsibility of the alleged victims to speak up. He noted that if someone in a relative position of power, like himself, couldn't make a difference, then what hope do victims have?
He concluded by saying that the onus should not be on the victims to press charges, and that we should enable their voices, but it's not them that should be forced to speak up. It's us.
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