Jane Seymour has added her voice to the many others speaking out against sexual harassment and assault, telling the hosts of Australia’s Sunrise, a morning talk show, about an experience that almost made her quit acting. As Variety reports, the Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman star recalled going for a screen test early in her career when “another major producer asked if he could meet me. He had another movie that he wanted me to star in.” Seymour says it “was very exciting. He asked if I would come to his house to do a screening.”
Her agent and the producer on the other film she’d auditioned for were thrilled for her, but when Seymour actually went to the influential producer’s home, she found no else there. After showing her the screen test she’d done, the producer moved in on her, saying “I’ve told everyone that you’re perfect for my movie. I can’t wait. You’re just perfect, but I’ve told everyone, and I’ve done my bit. Now it’s your turn to do your bit.” Seymour responded by pointing out that she was about to “do a great screen test for you in a day and a half,” which would be more than enough. The producer replied: “No, no. You know what you have to do.” And Seymour, who was over the bullshit by then, just said “No, I don’t.”
After he put his hand on her thigh, Seymour decided to leave. But, as she tells Sunrise, she’d arrived in a cab, so she had to wait in the home of this sexual harasser for another one. In that time, the producer “demanded she not tell anyone about the incident, or that she was even at his house.” When Seymour pointed out a few people already knew she would be at his home, including her agent, he told her to lie or “risk never working again anywhere on the planet. And because the producer “had that power,” Seymour stopped acting for a year. Now she says the fact that she “could have quit the profession completely—shows you how devastating it was to me.”