"He was a formed person and that wasn’t going to change."
Sarah Jessica Parker is opening up about an inappropriate experience in the workplace.
In a recent interview on NPR's Fresh Air, the 54-year-old actress recalls an incident that occurred on set that led her to speak to her agent and nearly leave a project. She claims a co-star "was behaving, not only inappropriately, but perhaps even I would say, they weren’t living up to contractual obligations as well."
"I think no matter how evolved or how modern I thought I was... I didn't feel entirely in a position -- no matter what my role was on set -- I didn't feel as powerful as the man who was behaving inappropriately," Parker said. "... [That] strikes me as just stunning to say out loud, because there were plenty of occasions where it was happening and I was in a different position and I was as powerful."
"I mean, I had every right to say, 'This is inappropriate.' I could have felt safe in going to a superior. And, in fact, I will say, when there was a situation with somebody and I did go to my agent -- because I felt I was no longer able to convey how uncomfortable this was making me, how inappropriate it was," the Divorce star continued. "... Within hours everything had changed... He said to them, 'If this continues, I have sent her a ticket, a one-way ticket out of this city' -- where I was shooting -- 'and she will not be returning.'"
Following the experience, Parker admitted that the working environment wasn't "perfectly pleasant," though she did feel "better and safer."
"I didn't have to listen to jokes about me or my figure or what people thought they could talk me into doing," she said. "All these men. All these men. That stopped."
"The nature of the person who I felt was really the instigator, this was a grown man, a very big movie star and, you know, he was baked, meaning his personality, it was cooked," she added. "He was a formed person and that wasn’t going to change. But I felt certainly better and safer, like I could finish what I had agreed to do."
Parker, who's starred in projects including Sex and the City, The Family Stone and Failure to Launch, also spoke to how the #MeToo movement has made her reevaluate past experiences in a new light.
"It really wasn't, I would say, until about six or eight months ago that I started recognizing countless experiences of men behaving poorly, inappropriately, and all the ways that I had made it possible to keep coming to work or to remain on set, or to simply... just push it down, push it away, find a little space for it and move on," she said. "... [I] really just didn't allow it to consume me. To be honest, I don't know why I either wasn't courageous or more destroyed by some of the things that I was privy to, that I was on the receiving end of."
Watch the video below for more on Parker.
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