JamesG
01-14-2018, 02:50 AM
Eliza Dushku Accuses "True Lies" Stunt Coordinator of Sexual Assault
by David Robb
January 13, 2018
Actress Eliza Dushku has accused famed stunt coordinator Joel Kramer of sexually molesting her when she was 12 years old during filming of True Lies.
Dushku, the former "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Dollhouse" actress, starred as the daughter of the characters played by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis, and Kramer, who has long been Schwarzenegger personal stunt double, was the film’s stunt coordinator.
She also claims that after Kramer was confronted by an adult she’d confided in, he intentionally injured her, breaking her ribs, in a stunt that went wrong during filming of the film’s Harrier Jet scene. “Whereas he was supposed to be my protector, he was my abuser,” the actress wrote in a lengthy Facebook posting.
“When I was 12 years old, while filming True Lies, I was sexually molested by Joel Kramer, one of Hollywood’s leading stunt coordinators. Ever since, I have struggled with how and when to disclose this, if ever. At the time, I shared what happened to me with my parents, two adult friends and one of my older brothers. No one seemed ready to confront this taboo subject then, nor was I.”
I remember, so clearly 25 years later, how Joel Kramer made me feel special, how he methodically built my and my parents’ trust, for months grooming me; exactly how he lured me to his Miami hotel room with a promise to my parent that he would take me for a swim at the stunt crew’s hotel pool and for my first sushi meal thereafter.
I remember vividly how he methodically drew the shades and turned down the lights; how he cranked up the air-conditioning to what felt like freezing levels, where exactly he placed me on one of the two hotel room beds, what movie he put on the television (Coneheads); how he disappeared in the bathroom and emerged, naked, bearing nothing but a small hand towel held flimsy at his mid-section. I remember what I was wearing (my favorite white denim shorts, thankfully, secured enough for me to keep on). I remember how he laid me down on the bed, wrapped me with his gigantic writhing body, and rubbed all over me.
He spoke these words: ‘You’re not going to sleep on me now sweetie, stop pretending you’re sleeping,’ as he rubbed harder and faster against my catatonic body. When he was ‘finished,’ he suggested, ‘I think we should be careful…’ [about telling anyone] he meant. I was 12, he was 36.
I remember how afterwards, the taxi driver stared at me in the rear view mirror when Joel Kramer put me on his lap in the backseat and clutched me and grew aroused again; and how my eyes never left the driver’s eyes during that long ride over a Miami bridge, back to my hotel and parent. I remember how Joel Kramer grew cold with me in the ensuing weeks, how everything felt different on the set.
And I remember how soon-after, when my tough adult female friend (in whom I had confided my terrible secret on the condition of a trade that she let me drive her car around the Hollywood Hills) came out to the set to visit and face him, later that very same day, by no small coincidence, I was injured from a stunt-gone-wrong on the Harrier jet.
With broken ribs, I spent the evening in the hospital. To be clear, over the course of those months rehearsing and filming True Lies, it was Joel Kramer who was responsible for my safety on a film that at the time broke new ground for action films. On a daily basis he rigged wires and harnesses on my 12 year old body. My life was literally in his hands: he hung me in the open air, from a tower crane, atop an office tower, 25+ stories high.
Why speak out now?. I was 12, he was 36. It is incomprehensible. Why didn’t an adult on the set find his predatory advances strange — that over-the-top special attention he gave me. Fairly early on he nicknamed me ‘Jailbait’ and brazenly called me by this name in a sick flirty way in front of others (at the time, I remember asking one of my older brothers what it meant). Sure, I’ve come to understand the terrible power dynamics that play into whistle-blowing by ‘subordinates’ against persons in power, how difficult it can be for someone to speak up.
But I was a child. Over the years I’ve really struggled as I’ve wondered how my life might have been different if someone, any one grown-up who witnessed his sick ways, had spoken up before he lured me to that hotel room. Years ago, I had heard second hand that Joel Kramer was ‘found out’ and forced to leave the business. I learned recently that in fact he still works at the top of the industry. And a few weeks ago, I found an internet photo of Joel Kramer hugging a young girl. That image has haunted me near nonstop since. I can no longer hide what happened.
Hollywood has been very good to me in many ways. Nevertheless, Hollywood also failed to protect me, a child actress. I like to think of myself as a tough Boston chick, in many ways I suppose not unlike Faith, Missy, or Echo. Through the years, brave fans have regularly shared with me how some of my characters have given them the conviction to stand up to their abusers. Now it is you who give me strength and conviction. I hope that speaking out will help other victims and protect against future abuse.
With every person that speaks out, every banner that drops down onto my iphone screen disclosing similar stories/truths, my resolve strengthens. Sharing these words, finally calling my abuser out publicly by name, brings the start of a new calm.
I am grateful to the women and men who have gone before me in recent months. The ever-growing list of sexual abuse and harassment victims who have spoken out with their truths have finally given me the ability to speak out. It has been indescribably exhausting, bottling this up inside me for all of these years.”
“These are outlandish, manipulated lies,” Kramer told Deadline. “I never sexually molested her. I’m sick to my stomach. It’s not true. I think she’s making this up in her imagination. This is all lies. Lies, lies, lies. This is just crazy.
I treated her like a daughter. We all looked out for her. How does a guy like me fight against something like this? I don’t know what to do. I guess I’ll have to get a lawyer and file a lawsuit against her for defamation and slander.”
Kramer also insisted that he never intentionally hurt her on the film. “I remember she might have gotten a little bruised” – from hanging by a harness and wires during the Harrier Jet scene – “but I don’t think she broke any ribs.”
Director James Cameron says he would have shown “no mercy” had he known about Eliza Dushku’s alleged experience on the set of his 1994 film True Lies, he said at TCA on Saturday.
At TCA representing his new AMC Visionaries project James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction, the director and explorer said, “I just heard about it, but obviously Eliza is very brave for speaking up, and I think all the women are that are speaking up and calling for a reckoning now.”
Expressing a need for change across the board, Cameron continued, “I think this has been endemic throughout human systems, not just Hollywood. But because Hollywood deals with women who were victims 10, 15, 20 years ago who are famous today, they get to have a louder voice when they come forward, so bravo for them for doing it, and I’m glad Eliza did that. It’s just heartbreaking that it happened to her.”
Cameron well remembered the man Dushku is accusing of molesting her.
“I know the other party, not well, he hasn’t worked for me since then,” he said, “but the fact that this was happening under our noses, and we didn’t know about it. I think going forward it’s important for all industries, and certainly Hollywood, to create a safe avenue for people to speak up, that they feel safe and that anybody that might be a predator or an abuser knows that that mechanism is there, that it’s encouraged and there’s no shame around it and there will be consequences.”
Clearly, Cameron felt troubled on a personal level by Eliza’s testimony, despite the hope that things are set to change in all industries.
“I think this is a great moment in history, unfortunately, it’s founded on personal tragedies for so many of these women. This is not a reckoning for Hollywood, this is not a reckoning for Americans, this is a reckoning for the human race. This ****’s been going on since day one…Hopefully, we will put something in place as an industry practice to do as much as we can.”
Cameron said he had had no idea what was going on because he is always removed from interpersonal situations on a set since he’s usually so focused on his creative process.
“Directors are historically pretty oblivious to the interpersonal things that are happening on their sets,” he said. “Had I known about it, there would have been no mercy. Now especially that I have daughters there would really have been no mercy.”
http://deadline.com/2018/01/eliza-dushku-accuse-true-lies-stunt-coordinator-of-sexual-assault-1202242562/
by David Robb
January 13, 2018
Actress Eliza Dushku has accused famed stunt coordinator Joel Kramer of sexually molesting her when she was 12 years old during filming of True Lies.
Dushku, the former "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Dollhouse" actress, starred as the daughter of the characters played by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis, and Kramer, who has long been Schwarzenegger personal stunt double, was the film’s stunt coordinator.
She also claims that after Kramer was confronted by an adult she’d confided in, he intentionally injured her, breaking her ribs, in a stunt that went wrong during filming of the film’s Harrier Jet scene. “Whereas he was supposed to be my protector, he was my abuser,” the actress wrote in a lengthy Facebook posting.
“When I was 12 years old, while filming True Lies, I was sexually molested by Joel Kramer, one of Hollywood’s leading stunt coordinators. Ever since, I have struggled with how and when to disclose this, if ever. At the time, I shared what happened to me with my parents, two adult friends and one of my older brothers. No one seemed ready to confront this taboo subject then, nor was I.”
I remember, so clearly 25 years later, how Joel Kramer made me feel special, how he methodically built my and my parents’ trust, for months grooming me; exactly how he lured me to his Miami hotel room with a promise to my parent that he would take me for a swim at the stunt crew’s hotel pool and for my first sushi meal thereafter.
I remember vividly how he methodically drew the shades and turned down the lights; how he cranked up the air-conditioning to what felt like freezing levels, where exactly he placed me on one of the two hotel room beds, what movie he put on the television (Coneheads); how he disappeared in the bathroom and emerged, naked, bearing nothing but a small hand towel held flimsy at his mid-section. I remember what I was wearing (my favorite white denim shorts, thankfully, secured enough for me to keep on). I remember how he laid me down on the bed, wrapped me with his gigantic writhing body, and rubbed all over me.
He spoke these words: ‘You’re not going to sleep on me now sweetie, stop pretending you’re sleeping,’ as he rubbed harder and faster against my catatonic body. When he was ‘finished,’ he suggested, ‘I think we should be careful…’ [about telling anyone] he meant. I was 12, he was 36.
I remember how afterwards, the taxi driver stared at me in the rear view mirror when Joel Kramer put me on his lap in the backseat and clutched me and grew aroused again; and how my eyes never left the driver’s eyes during that long ride over a Miami bridge, back to my hotel and parent. I remember how Joel Kramer grew cold with me in the ensuing weeks, how everything felt different on the set.
And I remember how soon-after, when my tough adult female friend (in whom I had confided my terrible secret on the condition of a trade that she let me drive her car around the Hollywood Hills) came out to the set to visit and face him, later that very same day, by no small coincidence, I was injured from a stunt-gone-wrong on the Harrier jet.
With broken ribs, I spent the evening in the hospital. To be clear, over the course of those months rehearsing and filming True Lies, it was Joel Kramer who was responsible for my safety on a film that at the time broke new ground for action films. On a daily basis he rigged wires and harnesses on my 12 year old body. My life was literally in his hands: he hung me in the open air, from a tower crane, atop an office tower, 25+ stories high.
Why speak out now?. I was 12, he was 36. It is incomprehensible. Why didn’t an adult on the set find his predatory advances strange — that over-the-top special attention he gave me. Fairly early on he nicknamed me ‘Jailbait’ and brazenly called me by this name in a sick flirty way in front of others (at the time, I remember asking one of my older brothers what it meant). Sure, I’ve come to understand the terrible power dynamics that play into whistle-blowing by ‘subordinates’ against persons in power, how difficult it can be for someone to speak up.
But I was a child. Over the years I’ve really struggled as I’ve wondered how my life might have been different if someone, any one grown-up who witnessed his sick ways, had spoken up before he lured me to that hotel room. Years ago, I had heard second hand that Joel Kramer was ‘found out’ and forced to leave the business. I learned recently that in fact he still works at the top of the industry. And a few weeks ago, I found an internet photo of Joel Kramer hugging a young girl. That image has haunted me near nonstop since. I can no longer hide what happened.
Hollywood has been very good to me in many ways. Nevertheless, Hollywood also failed to protect me, a child actress. I like to think of myself as a tough Boston chick, in many ways I suppose not unlike Faith, Missy, or Echo. Through the years, brave fans have regularly shared with me how some of my characters have given them the conviction to stand up to their abusers. Now it is you who give me strength and conviction. I hope that speaking out will help other victims and protect against future abuse.
With every person that speaks out, every banner that drops down onto my iphone screen disclosing similar stories/truths, my resolve strengthens. Sharing these words, finally calling my abuser out publicly by name, brings the start of a new calm.
I am grateful to the women and men who have gone before me in recent months. The ever-growing list of sexual abuse and harassment victims who have spoken out with their truths have finally given me the ability to speak out. It has been indescribably exhausting, bottling this up inside me for all of these years.”
“These are outlandish, manipulated lies,” Kramer told Deadline. “I never sexually molested her. I’m sick to my stomach. It’s not true. I think she’s making this up in her imagination. This is all lies. Lies, lies, lies. This is just crazy.
I treated her like a daughter. We all looked out for her. How does a guy like me fight against something like this? I don’t know what to do. I guess I’ll have to get a lawyer and file a lawsuit against her for defamation and slander.”
Kramer also insisted that he never intentionally hurt her on the film. “I remember she might have gotten a little bruised” – from hanging by a harness and wires during the Harrier Jet scene – “but I don’t think she broke any ribs.”
Director James Cameron says he would have shown “no mercy” had he known about Eliza Dushku’s alleged experience on the set of his 1994 film True Lies, he said at TCA on Saturday.
At TCA representing his new AMC Visionaries project James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction, the director and explorer said, “I just heard about it, but obviously Eliza is very brave for speaking up, and I think all the women are that are speaking up and calling for a reckoning now.”
Expressing a need for change across the board, Cameron continued, “I think this has been endemic throughout human systems, not just Hollywood. But because Hollywood deals with women who were victims 10, 15, 20 years ago who are famous today, they get to have a louder voice when they come forward, so bravo for them for doing it, and I’m glad Eliza did that. It’s just heartbreaking that it happened to her.”
Cameron well remembered the man Dushku is accusing of molesting her.
“I know the other party, not well, he hasn’t worked for me since then,” he said, “but the fact that this was happening under our noses, and we didn’t know about it. I think going forward it’s important for all industries, and certainly Hollywood, to create a safe avenue for people to speak up, that they feel safe and that anybody that might be a predator or an abuser knows that that mechanism is there, that it’s encouraged and there’s no shame around it and there will be consequences.”
Clearly, Cameron felt troubled on a personal level by Eliza’s testimony, despite the hope that things are set to change in all industries.
“I think this is a great moment in history, unfortunately, it’s founded on personal tragedies for so many of these women. This is not a reckoning for Hollywood, this is not a reckoning for Americans, this is a reckoning for the human race. This ****’s been going on since day one…Hopefully, we will put something in place as an industry practice to do as much as we can.”
Cameron said he had had no idea what was going on because he is always removed from interpersonal situations on a set since he’s usually so focused on his creative process.
“Directors are historically pretty oblivious to the interpersonal things that are happening on their sets,” he said. “Had I known about it, there would have been no mercy. Now especially that I have daughters there would really have been no mercy.”
http://deadline.com/2018/01/eliza-dushku-accuse-true-lies-stunt-coordinator-of-sexual-assault-1202242562/