Rachel McAdams, Selma Blair detail sexual harassment by James Toback
LOS ANGELES: Hollywood stars Selma Blair and Rachel McAdams are among the latest women who have accused director James Toback for sexually harassing and assaulting them.
In separate interviews with Vanity Fair, Blair and McAdams recounted their alleged experiences with Toback, whom they had met for a business meetings, early in their careers.
Detailing the incident Blair said that when she was supposedly auditioning for a role as a lawyer in "Harvard Man," Toback invited her to his hotel room for "a private audition and coaching".
Toback asked Blair to audition naked, then asked her if she would have sex with him. He also hinted to Blair that he had gang connections and could have her kidnapped and killed if she did not agree or told anyone about the meeting.
"After he finished, he told me, 'There is a girl who went against me. She was going to talk about something I did. I am going to tell you, and this is a promise, if she ever tells anybody, no matter how much time she thinks went by, I have people who will pull up in a car, kidnap her, and throw her in the Hudson River with cement blocks on her feet. You understand what I'm talking about, right?'" Blair said.
"My career was just starting, and I was frightened. I thought I was going to be kidnapped if I told anybody," she added.
McAdams auditioned for the same movie and also agreed to meet Toback for a private audition, acting workshop, and rehearsal.
The actor said that Toback referenced self pleasuring while thinking of her several times during the encounter.
McAdams later found out from her agent that the director had done the same thing to another one of her clients.
"I really was frozen. My brain was not catching up... I called my agent at the time. And she was outraged. She was very sorry... I felt like I was kind of thrown into the lion's den and given no warning that he was a predator. This was something that he was known for doing already. I was so surprised to hear that," she said.
Toback denied the allegations to the Los Angeles Times, claiming that he had never met any of the then-38 accusers or, if he did, the meetings were very brief. He also claimed that for the last 22 years it had been "biologically impossible" for him to do what he was accused of, citing diabetes and a heart condition.
"When he called these women liars, and said he didn't recall meeting them and that the behaviour alleged could not be attributed to him, I just felt rage and an obligation to speak publicly now," Blair said.
"I did not want to talk about this ever again," McAdams said. "However, even though it is a really bad memory, I feel like some good could come from talking about it now." In the fallout after Harvey Weinstein's sexual abuse scandal rocked Hollywood, over 200 women came forward following a Los Angeles Times expose of Toback.