Matthew Lawrence says he was sexually harassed in Hollywood

Actor Matthew Lawrence revealed on his podcast “Brotherly Love” this Friday (28) that he was the victim of sexual harassment in Hollywood. The revelation happened when he was debating with his brothers, also actors Joey and Andrew Lawrence, about the #MeToo movement and he said that by refusing to get involved with a director of a Marvel project, he lost the contract at an agency of actors.

“There have been many times in my life when I’ve been offered a big role,” Lawrence begins in the account during the podcast. “I lost my agency because I went to the hotel room and there appeared an award-winning director in a bathrobe who asked me to take off my clothes. I refused and lost the contract”.

Matthew Lawrence, who acted in the films ‘Before Only Than Badly Accompanied’ (1987), ‘An Almost Perfect Nanny’ (1991) and ‘Poison Girl’ (2002) further detailed the harassment. “The director said he needed to take some naked pictures of Polaroids and that if I did X, Y and Z, I would be the next Marvel character. I left the room”, he recalled avoiding identifying those involved.

The Lawrence brothers said they viewed the #MeToo movement as “a very good thing” but lamented that men were not given the same support as women when they shared their experiences with sexual harassment and abuse in the entertainment industry.

“In my opinion, not many guys have come out and talked about it in the industry and it’s probably a third of what women have gone through and go through. But men go through it too,” admits Matthew. “I think our society is less ready to hear that the situation is happening with men than with women.”