Singer and actress Jennifer Lopez has opened up about her experience with sexual harassment on set.
As part of a special #MeToo round table interview with other actresses such as Laura Dern, Scarlett Johansson, Renee Zellweger, Awkwafina and Lupita Nyong’o for The Hollywood Reporter.
She told the The Hollywood Reporter that a director on one of her earlier films demanded to see her breasts in private, ahead of seeing them in nude scenes for the film.
THR Cover: The Drama Actress Roundtable with Jennifer Lopez (@JLo), Scarlett Johansson, @Lupita_Nyongo, Renée Zellweger, @LauraDern and @awkwafina https://t.co/hHIUJkqHir #THRRoundtable pic.twitter.com/gzSJ5qc4Vi
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) November 13, 2019
She recalled: “He wanted to see my boobs.”
“I said, ‘no,’ I stood up for myself. But it was so funny because I remember being so panicked in the moment.”
“And by the way, there was a costume designer in the room with me.”
“So there was another woman in the room and he says this and I said no.”
“Luckily, a little bit of the Bronx came out, and I was like, ‘I don’t have to show you my – No. On the set, you see them.'”
Jennifer said that by standing up to the director, she feels that she paved the way for other women on set to say no to his demands.
“That’s the thing, because if you give in, in that moment, all of a sudden that person is off and running, thinking they can do whatever they want.”
“And because I put up a little boundary right there and said no, he laid off and then later on apologized.”
“It was one of my first movies. But in my mind I knew the behaviour wasn’t right. It could have gone either way for me.”
