Matthew Lawrence has spoken up about the double-standards of the #MeToo movement when men come forward with sexual assault allegations. Speaking to his brothers Joey and Andrew on their podcast, Brotherly Love, the Boy Meets World star, reveals that he, himself, was in a Boy Meet Shady Director situation when his agency sent him up to the hotel room of a prominent director.
“There’s been many times in my life where I’ve been propositioned to get a huge role,” Lawrence said. “I’ve lost my agency because I went to the hotel room — which I can’t believe they would send me to — of a very prominent Oscar award-winning director who showed up in his robe, asked me to take my clothes off, and said he needed to take Polaroids of me. And then if I did X, Y, and Z, I would be the next Marvel character.”
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“I didn’t do that, and my agency fired me because I left this director’s room.”
And fair play to Lawrence, because predators that have naked photos of you will only use this as further leverage to pursue their sexual fantasies. Also fuck that agency. One reason why directors get away with sexual assault is because agents are complicit; acting as pimps, sending out their actors to get more business from the directors.
Although he never revealed the name of the director or his agency at the time, he aims to shed light on male experiences in the film industry.
“It is a real thing, the casting couch,” he said. “We all know it’s existed… Not a lot of guys have come out and talked about this in the industry.
Perhaps one reason being, is that many men were attacked for sharing their experiences at the start of the movement. I saw a number of incidents where men were told “this isn’t about you”.
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“Granted, it’s probably about a third of what women go through,” Lawrence added, but “men go through this as well, whether its another woman or another man in power.”
Lawrence went on to refer to Terry Crews, who filed a lawsuit against Adam Venit in regards to an incident where he groped Crews at a party. Despite denying the allegations, they – of course – reached an out of court settlement.
“Terry Crews comes out and says it; people are laughing at him. People don’t support him,” Lawrence said. “They kick him out. Why? Because he’s a man that represents masculinity, and I think our society is less ready to hear that situation going on with men than they are with women.”