“Grey’s Anatomy” star Caterina Scorsone has joined the ranks of hundreds of women accusing James Toback of sexual harassment, saying the director made inappropriate advances toward her when she was a teenager. In response to Toback’s recent Rolling Stone interview, in which he completely denied the allegations posed against him, the actress posted a lengthy statement to Instagram over the weekend about the “predatory director” and an essay she recently shared about her alleged experiences with him at the age of 17.
“In response to James Toback’s crass denial in Rolling Stone, I feel I must corroborate the stories of these women,” Scorsone wrote on Instagram. “I want to be clear that the predatory director I wrote about in the article I posted a few days back, was James Toback. The article was written 17 years ago. Many industry people knew about it and encouraged me to stay silent. I didn’t, and it directly affected my career. I stand with all the women who were brave enough to tell their stories. I also stand with all the women who don’t feel that they can speak up, even now. Let’s shine light into all the darkest corners.”
Scorscone shared the article in question on Instagram a few days before making her direct accusations against Toback. In the personal essay, which she penned at 17, she wrote about suffering sexual advances while auditioning for a feature film with a “fairly prominent director.” A the time, she did not mention Toback by name.
“He launched into a semantic lecture about the nature and definition of sex, orgasm and the universe,” Scorsone wrote of Toback’s alleged behavior. “When this failed to convince me, he called my vocation into question.”
“He told me that I was repressed, and that, if I were a real actor like the half-dozen names he mentioned working with, I would be willing to trust him and just ‘go there,’” she added.
The actress, who plays Dr. Amelia Shepherd on “Grey’s Anatomy,” noted that she retired from acting soon after publishing the essay, but returned when she felt safe with showrunners like Shonda Rhimes, who she calls “an example of the good side of this industry.”
Toback spoke to Rolling Stone’s Hillel Aron four days before the Los Angeles Times published an expose that included 38 women’s accusations of sexual harassment against the director. “The idea that I would offer a part to anyone for any other reason than that he or she was gonna be the best of anyone I could find is so disgusting to me,” Toback said in response to the sexual harassment accounts Aron had gathered from nine women. “And anyone who says it is a lying c–sucker or c– or both. Can I be any clearer than that?”
So far, hundreds of women — including actresses Selma Blair, Rachel McAdams and Julianne Moore — have come forward with accounts of sexual harassment at Toback’s hand.
Here is Scorscone’s full statement and personal essay:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaxvDE9nnBF/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaUenqLnnpQ/