Naomie Harris will not name the A-list actor who groped her as a young actress because she doesn’t want her "whole narrative to be hijacked by one person’s name".
The ‘Black and Blue’ star revealed in an interview with The Guardian newspaper that when she was in her twenties she was inappropriately grabbed by the male star who put his hand up her skirt during an audition as the casting director and director looked on in silence.
Naomie has decided not to name the man responsible because she doesn’t want to forever be connected to him.
In an interview with US TV show ‘Extra’, she said: "I would never do that. It’s not about that person. I don’t want my whole narrative to be hijacked by one person’s name. I’m not defined by what one person did to me … I don’t know how wide-reaching his abuse of power was. It was one incident that happened and thankfully it wasn’t scarring in any way. I got over it and lived to tell the tale."
The 43-year-old British actress – who plays Eve Moneypenny in the James Bond films – wanted to open up about her experience of sexual harassment because she wanted to show how the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements had changed the landscape in the movie business and given female performers the courage to expose this type of behaviour.
She said: "It wasn’t a kind of decision where I was like, ‘Now, I’m going to share my story because I had hidden it for so long…’ It was a real celebration of the fact that I feel as though things have moved on so dramatically since when I first started in this industry. In my 20s, when that incident happened, I didn’t feel there was anybody I could tell about it.
"I spoke to other actresses and my fellow actresses all experienced something of that kind … It was always expected. We were expected to kind of develop this resilience … Now, I know the culture has completely changed … Consequences happen. I’m really excited about the change."
Naomie Harris won’t name A-list actor who groped her
