Early Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times published interviews with six women, all accusing director and producer — and somehow, friend of Mariah Carey — Brett Ratner, 48, of sexual harassment misconduct. They, of course, are following in the footsteps of hundreds of women who have come forward in the last few weeks against the likes of Harvey Weinstein and James Toback.
Who are the women who say the “Rush Hour” director have harassed or assaulted them? Here are their stories.
Olivia Munn
Munn, 37, is an actress well-known for her stints on “Attack of the Show” and “The Daily Show,” who has now appeared in series like “New Girl” and films like “X-Men Apocalypse.”
Olivia Munn said that while visiting the set of the 2004 Ratner-directed “After the Sunset” when she was still an aspiring actress, he masturbated in front of her in his trailer when she went to deliver a meal. Munn wrote about the incident in her 2010 collection of essays without naming Ratner. On a television show a year later, Ratner identified himself as the director, and claimed that he had “banged” her, something he later said was not true. The same year her book was published, Munn ran into Ratner at a party thrown by Creative Artists Agency and he boasted of ejaculating on magazine covers featuring her image, she told The Times.
She said that persistent false rumors that they had been intimate have infuriated her, prompting her to talk to The Times in support of other women who are “brave enough to speak up.”
“I’ve made specific, conscientious choices not to work with Brett Ratner,” Munn said.
Natasha Henstridge
Henstridge, 43, is a Canadian actress and former model, who has starred in the likes of “The Whole Nine Yards” and “Species.” She was 19-years-old when Ratner, in his early 20s, forced her to perform oral sex.
They had been hanging out in front of the TV with friends at his New York apartment.
But when Henstridge woke up, the others had left. She was alone with Ratner. She got up to leave, Henstridge said, but he blocked the doorway with his body and wouldn’t budge. He began touching himself, she said, then forced her to perform oral sex.
“He strong-armed me in a real way. He physically forced himself on me,” she said. “At some point, I gave in and he did his thing.”
Jamie Ray Newman
Newman is a 39-year-old actress and singer who has starred in “General Hospital,” “Veronica Mars” and “Supernatural.” She says that Ratner switched seats with his assistant so that he could sit right next to Newman during a flight — and that he started describing sexual acts to her in graphic detail.
Newman said she encountered Ratner in 2005 when they were both in first class on an Air Canada flight. The filmmaker swapped seats with his assistant before departure so he could be next to her, she said. Newman, who was on her way to shoot her first major acting role on the TV show “Supernatural,” was excited to talk with a “famous director” about to helm “X-Men: The Last Stand,” she said.
Within five minutes of the plane taking off, she said, Ratner began loudly describing sex acts he wanted to perform on her in explicit detail. He also showed her nude photos of his then-girlfriend, said Newman, 39, who stars on Netflix’s forthcoming “The Punisher.”
“He was graphically describing giving me oral sex and how he was addicted to it,” she said.
Newman said she was so shaken by the encounter that she immediately told a handful of people about it. Both her mother and a friend confirmed to The Times that the actress shared details shortly after the flight.
Katharine Towne
Towne, 39 — who was once married to Charlie Hunnam — is an actress who has starred in the likes of “What Lies Beneath” and “Mulholland Drive.” She says Ratner came on to her in an extreme way that made her severely uncomfortable.
Actress Katharine Towne also described an aggressive come-on by Ratner that left her so uncomfortable that she said she still vividly remembers the incident years later. She said she met the director in L.A. around 2005 at a party in a movie star’s home, where he made unwanted advances. Ratner, she said, was persistent, “making it evident that he had one motive” — to sleep with her.
“He started to come on to me in a way that was so extreme,” said Towne… The actress, who is the daughter of “Chinatown” screenwriter Robert Towne, excused herself. Ratner followed her into a bathroom.
“I think it’s pretty aggressive to go in the bathroom with someone you don’t know and close the door,” Towne said.
She said she was nervous, and tried to make a joke about her weight: “I don’t even know what you want with me. I’m kind of chubby right now.” He was undeterred. “I like ’em chubby sometimes,” she said Ratner replied. Towne gave Ratner her number, hoping to placate him. Ratner’s assistant called her for the next six months, unsuccessfully trying to arrange a dinner for her and the filmmaker, she said.
Eri Saski
Actress Saski, who worked on set of Ratner’s “Rush Hour 2,” was a 21-year-old part-time model ad aspiring singer. Ratner approached her while she was working as an extra.
[She] said her role as an extra required her to wear a skimpy outfit that exposed her midriff. While waiting for filming to begin one day, Ratner approached her, ran his index finger down her bare stomach and asked if she wanted to go into a bathroom with him. When she said no, she recalled Ratner saying, “Don’t you want to be famous?”
A day or two later, Ratner again asked her to go into the bathroom with him, and again asked if she wanted to be a movie star. He offered to give her a line of dialogue in the film. Sasaki said no.
Jorina King
King — an actress known for her work on Into the “Wild,” “Transformers” and “Up in the Air” — founded background casting agency Wild Streak Talent. She too worked as a background actress on “Rush Hour 2,” and she says she’s dealt with many a brusque man on a movie set — but Ratner was different.
On the first day of shooting, King said, Ratner plucked her from a crowd of female extras and said he later wanted to discuss giving her a speaking part.
The next day, he asked her to come to his trailer and told her he needed to see her breasts, she said. King said she rejected his request and hid in a restroom. “I figured if I could stay out of his eyesight, if I could stay away from him, he will forget about me and he will choose someone else, and that is exactly what happened,” King said, adding that she feared him — and losing the work.
“He feels entitled, that this is what he wants, this is how it is going to be, and this feels like normal business to him,” she said.
