CSI: Miami star Eva LaRue is the latest woman to share her Steven Seagal horror story on a public platform, adding her own account to a growing litany of tales showing that the Under Siege star allegedly used, on a regular basis, the pretense of auditions or professional meetings to lure women into inappropriate sexual situations.
As with so many of these stories, LaRue says she was assured by the people around her, including casting directors and her own agent, that everything was on-the-up, even as red flags—like the audition being held at Seagal’s home, or the absence of a script at her initial sit-down with Seagal and some of the film’s producers—began to build up. And then, inevitably:
I don’t know why we don’t have the script in the living room where we were meeting, but I said, “OK,” and I follow him, thinking we’re going to his office. We go down the hallway to this room, which is like an office and guest room kind of thing. And he says, “Have a seat on the couch.” It was like a literal casting couch. And as I was walking towards the couch, with my back towards the door, he’s busy closing and locking the doors behind my back. I go to sit on the couch, and he comes towards me and he’s opening his weirdo kimono. There’s no script or anything. Just him standing there with his kimono open. He had underwear on, thank God, and he was bare everywhere else. And it was clear he was not just getting cozy.
LaRue says that Seagal never touched her, and that she managed to unlock the door and extricate herself from the situation. She now questions whether there was ever any movie at all, and says her agent clearly knew what they were sending her into. Meanwhile, she ended her story—relayed by Deadline—with a reminder that none of these allegations are as new or unfamiliar as they might seem in the public mind:
I told this story a thousand times, and finally it matters, I’m not “suddenly” coming forward. All these women who have accused Harvey Weinstein aren’t “suddenly” coming forward. These are not new stories that girls are “suddenly” coming out with. These are stories we’ve been telling at dinner parties, and to our friends, our family members, our agents and our fellow actors for years. But nobody cared until now, and now people are “suddenly” coming forward.