Lupita Nyong'o's op-ed for the New York Times is doing exactly what she intended. Thanks to her story, Scandal's Tony Goldwyn came forward with his own experiences with sexual harassment during the early days of his career.
Vulture reports that Goldwyn explained that he also went through the Hollywood casting couch experience that so many actors have described.
"It happened to me when I was literally Lupita's age, in my last year of acting school," Goldwyn told Access Hollywood at this year's GLSEN Respect Awards, which honor individuals that work against harassment and bullying. "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."
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Goldwyn explained that he didn't share his story earlier because like so many of the people who've gone through the same thing, he blamed himself for the ordeal and was confused afterward. He noted that it took years for him to come to terms with the incident and that immediately after it had happened, he thought that he was somehow misinterpreting the whole thing.
"It was similar in that I got out of the situation," he said of his experience and Nyong'o's. "It's something women have to deal with in every situation, in every industry with powerful men."
Though Nyong'o called out Harvey Weinstein directly in her piece, Goldwyn didn't name names. He hopes that sharing his story will bring the issue to the forefront and added that harassment is definitely not a new phenomenon in the entertainment industry — or any industry. Hopefully, Goldwyn's message inspires more people in the industry to work together for real change.
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