This reporting is extraordinary. You'd wish the allegations were. Productions & orgs need clear processes for accountability that treat anon accusations as seriously as a bomb threat, transparency in subsequent investigation & to fire the phrase "he's just like that" into the sun https://twitter.com/thedalstonyears/status/1387842039186923526

It's easy to get tied up in knotty questions of the right approach ( I admit I've been there myself) but in the end if we're as dedicated to a better industry as we say, erring on the side of utmost seriousness as first principle is the better standard and we should expect that

Might throw up its own problems but would clearly help far more people than it might possibly hurt. And if you have a system of accountability that all buy into and accept as necessary, any temporary hurt is diminished & contextualised anyway. "It's not illegal" is too low a bar

Beyond anything else, the corrosive effect of this kind of persistent behaviour on the vulnerability a person needs to do their best, creative work in a collaborative environment is hideous. It damages futures, makes souls weary and rots all joy. It's not just 'having a laugh'.

There's been little so haunting in my relatively brief time in this industry than seeing the lights slowly dim in the eyes of a friend & realising too late that it's because they were made to feel that getting their spirit ground down is the guilt price to be paid for the glamour

Enough people already feel like this industry isn't for them. It can be a demanding field, emotionally & physically. Sometimes we are not our best selves so perhaps are willing to allow that in others. But no amount of strain justifies losing flourishing talent to monstrous egos.

Last thing - the normalisation of this starts early and is disguised as 'edginess' or part of the intimacy/vulnerability that work the necessitates. Before I was in this field, a friend told me that in her first session at her drama school they had to pretend to have an orgasm...

...In front of everyone. I was alarmed but thought I just didn't 'get it' or this is how real artists are and...it's not. It's coercion & titillation presented as methodology. Fuck that. We should enable our artists to find that rawness safely rather than accept abuse as process.

The artists w/ seniority I love hearing about aren't ones whose passions burn so very brightly. It's the ones that I get told: "God, they just made it all feel safer for everyone." The grateful relief you hear in the telling of those stories says everything about how rare that is

I try (and often fail, still) to be that person when I can, but I'm inspired by those stories as much as I am leadened by the horror ones. We with some position can both ask more of ourselves (men, overwhelmingly) & seek to build a higher floor of expectation for those coming up

Anything else is as an industry wide failure and a personal abdication of responsibility that colleagues need us to take so they can have the grace and openness to build towards the bold work that we all came into this field dreaming to create