Tavi Gevinson on the set of This Is Our Youth. Photo: Brigitte Lacombe Scott Rudin cast me in my first Broadway play, Kenneth Lonergan’s This Is Our Youth, when I was a senior in high school in 2014. I had been in one movie, and although I’d loved theater as a kid, stage acting seemed like something you had to go to college for. I decided not to audition, but then my agents told me the request came directly from Scott.
This Is Our Youth changed my life — in every possible way, I felt, and all for the better. It moved me to New York, gave me a community, fulfilled me creatively in a way I’d never before experienced, and granted me a theater career. I have since acted in several shows on and Off Broadway, including Ivo van Hove’s production of The Crucible, which Scott also produced.
It was also in this spirit that I rolled my eyes at members of Hollywood feigning shock when the first reports on Harvey Weinstein’s serial sexual violence were published in 2017. In the early months of the industry’s reckoning with Me Too, I was relieved and thrilled that so many violent people were being held accountable, while suspicious of the institutions and powerful figures suddenly showing concern.
Two weeks ago, the exposé came out. A cover story in The Hollywood Reporter detailed Scott allegedly smashing a computer monitor on one assistant’s hand, sending him to the emergency room. One HR person went to the ER for a panic attack. A handful of stories detail allegations of verbal, emotional, and physical abuse.
But now that people have taken the risk of going on the record, it is an opportunity to change how these industries work; to show people with similar stories of abuse that they won’t be met with a void if they share them, and to show abusers that their actions aren’t without consequence. I wanted to believe that actors like myself speaking out don’t make a difference — we are not the ones with hiring and firing power.
This brings me back to “But he was nice to me.” This refrain just underscores the efficacy of respecting people’s humanity only so long as their loyalty is advantageous. It also underscores the scarcity and fear that Hollywood and theater function on. Many of us contractors do not have job security and learn that it would not be in our “best interests” to challenge those who could employ us. We’re taught that we’re expendable and that there is always someone willing to do our job, and for free.
tavitulle 1/8 Solar & Wind are 0 emissions? Each 1 MW of solar farm power requires between 35 to 45 tons of steel, + you need to dig for cadmium, gallium, germanium, etc Make silicon Silicon metal is made from the reaction of silica (SiO2) -
tavitulle Interesting Rita Wilson the wife of Tom Hanks couldn’t say anything nor could Geffen and Diller... why
tavitulle It won’t change