‘It was hellish! I had nightmares’: George Takei opens up about the false sexual harassment allegations
The 'Star Trek' actor was accused of sexually assaulting a male model but the accusations were dropped
By Steve Brown
George Takei opens up about how he felt during the sexual harassment allegations made against him last year.
Last year, the Star Trek actor was accused of sexually assaulting a former male model Scott Brunton, who he met back in 1981. Brunton claimed Takei had got him drunk and when he awoke, the actor was groping him telling him to relax.
In the wake of the #MeToo movement, Takei decided to remain quiet during the allegations out of respect for all the women coming forward during the movement which shook Hollywood.
But after Brunton kept changing his story, the former model admitted that the assault “may not have happened” and confessed he did not remember any touching.
Now, in an exclusive interview with Attitude, Takei speaks about the “hellish” year he had after the allegations were made against him.
“It was hellish! I had nightmares, I couldn’t sleep,” he tells Attitude’s November Awards issue where he is awarded the Icon Award. “It was torturous, and yet, because of what I said about the #MeToo movement, I’m respecting it and I’m not going to say anything more other than the statement I put out.
“To myself and with Brad, I said, ‘I will speak out but in a timely fashion’, and I think that time has passed which is why I’m discussing it with you.
“But I was so disappointed in the press for not vetting it. Just like when we were incarcerated, there were no charges, no trial, no due process, and here, it took one unknown person to accuse me and the press just took that as fact and did nothing about it.
“However, subsequently, an investigative journalist named Shane Snow did look into it and my faith in the press and in journalism was refreshed, but it was a situation where only he did that.
“Snow did it in a very professional way, he talked to the accuser many times, he took that information and checked with the toxicologists.
“The other thing that really outraged me was [the man] accused me of drugging him — I would never do something like that. I had never done anything like that, and I knew that’s what made it false, he was making up all these things.
“Shane Snow said he had checked with toxicologists and they said, ‘In those days, if he had been drugged, he would not have remembered a thing about it. He would have been out cold and he certainly would not have been able to drive home’, as he claimed.
“Also, he kept changing his story. There were many stories that he changed, so he’s quite discredited now.”
Read George’s full interview and read about the winners from the Virgin Holidays Attitude Awards 2018, powered by Jaguar in the November Awards issue of Attitude, out now.
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