As the star of ‘Beloved‘, ‘Crash‘ and ‘For Colored Girls’ , Thandie Newton‘s Hollywood star shines just as bright today as it did when she made her debut in ‘Interview With The Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles’ back in ’94.

Unfortunately, as she has revealed this week, her show business came at a high price…sexual abuse.

As part of an international campaign to end violence against women, the actress told CNN:

‘When I was a 16 year old fresh from boarding school going out in, you know the casting couch, I was definitely objectified to an extreme. The way I was made to feel. The way I was exploited and the kind of role and the kinds of things I was expected to do in auditions.’

Relaying one incident that occurred during a screen test, she explained:

“It was a screen test.

There were two other people in the room – the director and the casting director, who was a woman. 

‘The director asked me to sit with my legs apart – the camera was positioned where it could see up my skirt – to put my leg over the arm of the chair.

Before I started my dialogue, [I was told to] think about the character I was supposed to be having the dialogue with and how it felt to be made love to by this person. It turned out the director… used to show that video late at night to interested parties at his house – a video of me touching myself with a camera up my skirt.”

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