Scandal Actor Says He Was Sexually Harassed

Actor Tony Goldwyn of Scandal and the film Ghost says he was sexually harassed by a man early in his career as part of an audition.

Goldwyn read an account from actress Lupita Nyong'o published in The New York Times of having been hounded by producer Harvey Weinstein. The story -- in which Nyong'o says she was entrapped in Weinstein's home and propositioned -- further led Goldwyn to say "it happened to me."

The star was asked about the Nyong'o op-ed on the red carpet for a recent GLSEN event. He said the account had left him "horrified and moved."

"It's affected me. It happened to me as a young guy, when I was literally Lupita's age, you know my last year of acting school," recalled Goldwyn. "It happened to me by a man and it wasn't as extended or awful as what Lupita went through, but it was the same thing. It was the casting couch and I didn't understand quite what was going on, or what was happening. I thought it was my fault. I thought I was misunderstanding the situation. And only afterward did I realize what had happened and it took me a couple years to get over it."

Goldwyn said that, like Nyong'o, "I got out of the situation." But he expressed alarm for what women contend with and called on men to speak out. "It's something that women have to deal with in every situation and every industry with powerful men."

"This is about awareness, this is not a new thing," Goldwyn told Access Hollywood. "It's something that we all need to take responsibility for. The predators in our society, and the abusers and harassers, are a small portion of men. But as a man I feel that me and my brothers need to step up and let women know that we've got their backs."

Goldwyn is one of several prominent actors who have come forward in the wake of the Weinstein scandal to say they'd been sexually harassed.

James Van Der Beek, the star of the teen drama Dawson's Creek, said "I've had my ass grabbed by older, powerful men, I've had them corner me in inappropriate sexual conversations when I was much younger."

Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Terry Crews said he'd been harassed by a "high level Hollywood executive" who walked right up to him "and groped my privates," then "just grinned like a jerk."

And an agent named Tyler Grasham was fired last week by APA Agency after actors came forward who'd said he invited them to meet and then plied them with alcohol before sexually harassing them.

Watch the red carpet interview with Goldwyn: