Portia de Rossi: Steven Seagal Sexually Harassed Me During an Audition

De Rossi tweeted that the actor unzipped his pants in front of her during an audition in his office.

Tracy E. Gilchrist

Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP of Editorial and Special Projects at equalpride. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.

Read Full Bio

Tracy E. Gilchrist

November 08 2017 7:17 PM EST

March 08 2019 12:06 AM EST

Sorry to interrupt...
But we wanted to take a moment to thank you for reading. Your support makes original LGBTQ+ reporting possible. Help us hold Trump accountable.

One-time Monthly

$19.67 $50 Other

$5 $19.67 $50

Since the dam finally burst about Harvey Weinstein's decades of serial sexual harassment and abuse of women in Hollywood, the #MeToo movement of people coming forward with their stories of surviving harassment has taken off and dozens of predatory men across industries have been exposed, many have lost their jobs, and some are under investigation. In a tweet on Thursday afternoon, actress Portia de Rossi (Scandal) -- famously married to Ellen DeGeneres -- added her name to the growing list of women who've come forward about harassment.

\u201cMy final audition for a Steven Segal movie took place in his office. He told me how important it was to have chemistry off-screen as he sat me down and unzipped his leather pants. I\ufe0f ran out and called my agent. Unfazed, she replied, \u201cwell, I didn\u2019t know if he was your type.\u201d\u201d
— Portia de Rossi (@Portia de Rossi) 1510181347

Plenty of high-profile actresses, including Ashley Judd, Angelina Jolie, Lupita Nyong'o, Daryl Hannah, Rose McGowan, Lena Headey, and Rachel McAdams, have spoken out about abuse at the hands of male Hollywood power players like Weinstein, James Toback, and Brett Ratner, although the list of the accused in Hollywood and the media currently stands at more than 30 men.

Male survivors of assault have also come forward. Nearly two weeks ago Kevin Spacey's house of cards came crumbling down when actor Anthony Rapp alleged that a 26-year-old Spacey sexually abused him when he was just 14. To deflect from the story that he preyed on a teen boy, Spacey took the scandal as an opportunity to come out, but his strategy backfired and he's been roundly castigated for it. Since then, more than a dozen accusers have come forward and Spacey has been fired from the hit Netflix series House of Cards.