Emmy Rossum has been working as an actress since the age of 7 and says she’s been exposed to predators in Hollywood ever since.
“I started in this business when I was 7 years old, and I’ve been dodging predators — the biggest and the smallest — since I was a child,” Rossum said during a panel discussion at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles about her new show, FURIOUS, “so for me the opportunity to make this show was a full-body experience.”
The PHANTOM OF THE OPERA actress did not elaborate further on her comment, however.
In FURIOUS, Rossum plays an FBI agent who tracks down perpetrators of sexual crimes and a female serial killer.
Unfortunately, stories of child abuse in Hollywood aren’t rare.
Last month, former Disney child actress Raquel Lee Bolleau filed a suit against Walt Disney Co., alleging that she was repeatedly raped as a 14-year-old while filming THE POOF POINT.
Related: Candace Cameron Bure Talks ‘Heartbreaking’ Abuse in Hollywood
The suit claims a Disney-employee and middle-aged man, referred to as John Doe in the suit, pressured her to drink alcohol and then raped her over a period of weeks. Bolleau claims she was instructed to build a relationship with Doe and spend time with him, and the abuse was evident but no adults intervened, the LA Times reported.
At the time, the actress says her health “changed dramatically.” When she came to set she was exhausted, “often intoxicated, hungover or vomiting.” An upcoming production, WEB GIRL, got cancelled because of her poor performance.
THE LOST BOYS star Corey Feldman recently revealed that he and Corey Haim suffered abuse and grooming as minors.
Haim “had more direct abuse than I did. With me, there were some molestations and it did come from several hands, so to speak, but with Corey, his was direct rape, whereas mine was not actual rape,” Feldman said. Haim was only 11.
He expressed regret that he cannot name the abusers, because California law protects them.
“If I were to go and mention anybody’s name I would be the one that would be in legal problems and I’m the one that would be sued,” he said. “We’re not talking about huge executives and directors that I am aware of that were involved in this. The people that I knew doing it were publicists, they were photographers for teen magazines, things like that.”
Feldman had to do “a lot” of therapy to get the healthy place he’s at today.
These stories are just a few out of many, many Hollywood traumas that plague children in the industry. When will children be protected? Will this ever end?
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