Hollywood's casting couch: Melissa Gilbert recounts abusive ‘The Doors’ audition for Oliver Stone

LOS ANGELES: Actress Melissa Gilbert has joined the string of actresses, who have come forward with allegations of sexual harassment, and has revealed details about her demeaning audition for director Oliver Stone for his biopic ‘The Doors’.

In an interview given to a leading US channel, the actress had a lot to say about the incident where she claimed that Stone sexually harassed her, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  

She said, “It was an audition for ‘The Doors’. I read the script and he asked me to do a scene that he had just written and it was really sexual, very graphic scene. The casting woman had left the room. I was alone with him and an actor and he asked me to not only read it, but also stage it. To get down on my hands and knees and deliver this really horrendous dialogue. It was really sprung on me and I started to cry. He said, ‘Good that will make it better’ and I left.”

The director spoke out against the ‘Little House on the Prairie' star’s narrative of her audition for his film ‘The Doors’, arguing that the scene was “made clear from the outset” and that it was established that the film was going to be a “raunchy, no-holds-barred, rock 'n' roll movie.”

Garcia supported Stone and confirmed his statements to be true.

“That was shocking to me, because either she’s lying or her memory is off. She was not in the room with me for this,” Gilbert said of Garcia.

Gilbert also noted what she thought could be done to help prevent future instances of alleged misconduct.

“Every day, someone has another story in some way. It's not just us. It's all across the country and the world. So, now the question is what are we going to do about it? I think, because the focus is on Hollywood and on the entertainment industry in general, it starts here,” explained Gilbert, adding, “It starts with some sort of commission that we create to create the boundaries and the rules and what they are now and create the safe place where people can come to report and get justice. Then we change the laws to protect the victims and not the perpetrators.”

Gilbert argued that actors and actresses should never visit a producer’s hotel room unaccompanied and there should always be “someone else in the room” when auditioning for something with sexual content.

The actress first went public with her story last week in an interview with Andy Cohen where she alleged that Stone sexually harassed her during her audition as a way to “get back at her.”

Last month, Stone faced another harassment claim after model and actress Carrie Stevens alleged that Stone groped her at a party.