Even as more women from different continents, fields and generations are coming forward with allegations of rape, sexual assault and groping against Oscar-winning producer Harvey Weinstein, Sex and the City actor Gilles Marini has opened up about his experience dealing with unwanted sexual advances in Hollywood.
Marini told People Magazine that he was approached by “extremely powerful people”, especially after Sex and the City.
“I became a piece of meat for many executives in Hollywood,” the 41-year-old actor said.
While speaking on the Weinstein scandal, the French-born model and actor shared his own experiences dealing with sexual misconduct, explaining that abused men often find it difficult to come forward.
“I didn’t see many men use the hashtag #MeToo,” he said, referring to the viral hashtag used by alleged abuse victims on social media.
“And the reason is because it’s a stigma, it’s a shame, you lose your manhood,” he told the magazine.
#MeToo hashtag started with an exposé detailing countless allegations against Weinstein. But soon, personal stories began pouring in from women in all industries across the world, and the hashtag became a rallying cry against sexual assault and harassment.
The movement began on social media after a call to action by the actor Alyssa Milano, one of Weinstein’s most vocal critics, who wrote: “If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘Me too’ as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.”
However, Marini is not the first Hollywood actor who spoke out against sexual advances. After The New York Times first published the story against Weinstein, actor Terry Crews("Brooklyn Nine-Nine") tweeted about an industry event last year where a film executive who is not Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted him. He started out the thread by tweeting that the accusations against Weinstein were giving him post-traumatic stress disorder.
