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. It has been indescribably exhausting, bottling this up inside me for all of these years. 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. I am grateful to the women and men who have gone before me in recent months. No one seemed ready to confront this taboo subject then, nor was I. At the time, I shared what happened to me with my parents, two adult friends and one of my older brothers. When I was 12 years old, while filming “True Lies”, I was sexually molested by Joel Kramer, one of Hollywood’s leading stunt coordinators.Įver since, I have struggled with how and when to disclose this, if ever. Read Dushku’s full post from her Facebook page below. This makes me very angry & breaks my heart but I AM SO PROUD OF HER. Tom Arnold ( January 13, was a wonderful child and is an amazing woman. … This makes me very angry & breaks my heart but I AM SO PROUD OF HER. True Lies star Tom Arnold took to Twitter on Saturday afternoon to say, “Of course I believe He added that Dushku was a “wonderful child and is an amazing woman. May Eliza be believed and supported and may her courage in telling her truth make a contribution to the sea change that is in progress.” Only now does it appear that women and men know what to do and are doing it. That was years ago when that power structure was the norm, and the bullies were in charge. Those who knew didn’t know what to do and were far enough down the pecking order to be afraid of losing their jobs if they pressed the issue because all the power lay in the hands of those who called the shots and would stop at nothing to protect each other. She continued, “I tried to keep Joel away from her as did others working on the set, but because of all the stunts she had to do, he was constantly involved with her and her body. “I was met with blank stares and had the sense that I wasn’t telling that person anything they didn’t already know.” “I was on the True Lies set for 3 weeks and reported Joel Kramer’s inappropriate sexual behavior towards 12-year-old Eliza to a person in authority,” Forbes said. Dushku also credited other Hollywood women who have come out with stories of abuse and assault in recent weeks for strengthening her resolve. The actress added that she was prompted to come out with her story now when she saw a photo of Kramer hugging a young girl on the internet, an image that she says “haunted” her. Whereas he was supposed to be my protector, he was my abuser.” 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. “On a daily basis he rigged wires and harnesses on my 12 year old body. “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,” Dushku wrote. That same day, “by no small coincidence,” the actress wrote, she broke ribs in what she says what a stunt that went wrong. She added that on the way back to her parents, he pulled her onto his lap during a taxi ride, but grew “cold” to her in subsequent encounters.ĭushku claims that she told a “tough adult friend” on set about the encounter, who approached Kramer with the allegation. “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,” Dushku wrote.ĭushku said he laid down next to her on a hotel bed and rubbed her repeatedly, then suggested that she not tell anyone of the encounter.
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