Over the weekend, Eliza Dushku accused Hollywood stunt coordinator Joel Kramer of sexually assaulting her on the set of True Lies when she was 12 years old, in addition to calling her “Jailbait” in public and allegedly using his status as the stunt coordinator to keep her quiet. Kramer denied the allegations, and while True Lies director James Cameron said he didn’t know about the accusation until recently, he did applaud Dushku’s “bravery” and noted that he hasn’t worked with Kramer since. Now, Dushku’s True Lies co-star Jamie Lee Curtis has written an essay for The Huffington Post in which she talks about how Hollywood has failed young actors despite “long-held and hard fought” legal protections that are in place.
Curtis says Dushku told her about what Kramer allegedly did “a few years ago,” and she was just as “shocked and saddened then” as she is today. That’s largely due to how Dushku’s account has “awakened us from our denial slumber to a new, horrific reality” of children being abused on film sets, despite the presence of other adults like Cameron and Curtis herself—who, as she notes, has been playing parents and guardian-figures all the way back to the original Halloween.
She says that everyone “must take some responsibility” for the way children are treated on film sets, which comes from “a misguided assumption that they are adults in an adult world, capable of making adult choices” rather than young people who are in need of protection. Curtis adds that she hopes stories like Dushku’s can help create “new guidelines and safe spaces” for all people—“regardless of age, gender, race, or job”—to tell their stories and help make sure that “all abusers will be held accountable.”
You can read her full essay at this link.