The Hollywood power dynamics that have allowed predators to ‘hide’ in plain site are the perfect script in three acts about the Hollywood power dynamic.
Act one starts with job descriptions: many entry level positions at agencies, production companies and studios ask directly or indirectly for applicants to have “a thick skin.” This is the grooming: telling young people coming into the industry that they should expect and be prepared to tolerate abuse. If they don’t, it’s their own fault for not having thick enough skin.
Act two follows the workers who excel in that environment being groomed to turn a blind eye to the abuse of others because, hey, we’re all getting it, aren’t we? Or, they’re often rightfully too afraid of the repercussions of speaking out.
In act three, those workers have become bosses who fulfill those roles just the way they were trained: to dish out abuse. Not all of this abuse is sexual — in fact most of it is not sexual — but the same culture that demands a high abuse threshold as the price of your dreams is also a ripe environment for sexual predators. And then another one of these people in a position of power uses their deep pockets and high powered attorneys to buy the legal silence of victims in no position to fight back, and here is your Oscar-winning film called Hollywood’s Open Secret.
We’re at a critical moment now. What has happened will continue to happen unless every single person working in the business is willing to accept responsibility to change the way we work today. Here are just a few places to start: