Director James Toback Calls ‘Anyone’ Who Accuses Him of Sexual Harassment a ‘C—sucker’ or a ‘C–t’

“It’s too stupid to dignify. It’s pathetic lies,” director tells Rolling Stone

James Toback

Director James Toback has some ill-advised words for the reportedly hundreds of women who have accused him of sexual harassment and assault:

“Anyone who says it is a lying c—sucker or c— or both. Can I be any clearer than that?,” Toback said an interview with Rolling Stone published Friday.

Rolling Stone’s Hillel Aron spoke to Toback four days before the explosive Los Angeles Times expose in which 38 women accused him of sexual harassment. Aron approached the director with the accounts of nine women, several of which were on the record. One of the accusers was his wife, KCRW reporter Anna Scott.

“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. “And anyone who says it is a lying c—sucker or c— or both. Can I be any clearer than that?”

Ambika Leigh, an aspiring actress and waitress, told Aron that Toback invited her to his hotel room under the pretense of helping her career, and started “humping [her] like a dog.” Similarly, writer Sari Kamin said Toback asked her to undress before rubbing his crotch against her leg. Toback called the allegations “offensive and insulting and disgusting.”

Glenn Whipp, the Los Angeles Times reporter who broke the news about Toback’s behavior, has said on Twitter that hundreds of women have contacted him to recount similar stories since the story was published last week. Toback has denied the allegations of the 38 women in the Times report, and suggested to Rolling Stone that the accusers were conspiring against him.

“They hear each other. And they gang up,” he said. “There was an article years and years ago with a bunch of anonymous people. People read things… it’s all, you know, me too, me too, me too, me too, me too.”

In the wake of the allegations against Harvey Weinstein, actress Alyssa Milano asked women to share their own stories of sexual harassment and assault using the hashtag #MeToo to show how prevalent the issue is in Hollywood and beyond.

Selma Blair, Rachel McAdams and Julianne Moore are among the women who have come forward to speak out against Toback, saying that he targeted them as young actresses and used the promise of advancing their career to lure them into inappropriate situations.

“It’s too stupid to dignify,” Toback told Rolling Stone, denying that he would ever promise someone a role in his movie in exchange for sex. “It’s pathetic lies. It’s just too fucking embarrassing and idiotic. And if I were you, I wouldn’t go repeating it, unless you really knew it were true, because it isn’t. So that’s all I have to say. This is not worth wasting another second on.”

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