While many A-list Hollywood actors, directors and producers took part in the launch of #TimesUp – including Shonda Rhimes, Kerry Washington, Rashida Jones and Eva Longoria – British actress Thandie Newton says she was excluded from participating in its unveiling, and she thinks it’s because her career “wasn’t hot enough.”
The “Westworld” star, who as a teen was sexually abused by a casting director, describes this rejection as “very painful.”
“I wasn’t mainstream enough and I wasn’t going to be at the Oscars this year, even though I am having a renaissance in my career,” Newton tells the Daily Telegraph.
The #TimesUp and #MeToo movements against sexual harassment in the workplace are personal for her, not only because of her own experience, but because she hopes other young women could learn from her story.
“I felt if there was one girl whose family was thinking about putting their child into show business, that would help them decide. That was all I cared about,” she says.
In addition to “Westworld,” whose second season premieres tonight on HBO, Newton will next be seen in “Solo: A Star Wars Story” and Xavier Dolan’s “The Death and Life of John F. Donovan.”
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