NEW YORK — A lewd photographer, a handsy doctor, a smooth-talking politician: Sexual harassment happens every day and it’s time to amp up the conversation, actor David Schwimmer said.
Schwimmer, Cynthia Nixon, Bobby Cannavale, Emmy Rossum and Noah Emmerich, among others, appear in a series of short films launched recently as part of a campaign called “That’s Harassment.” Each offers a disturbing glimpse into how abusers assume control, whether they’re bartenders, co-workers or bosses, and how such abuse can play out in plain view.
One of the films depicts a fashion photographer verbally abusing a young model at a shoot, asking that she touch herself under her jeans as others watch. Another shows a physician who caresses the breast of a weak and ailing female patient complaining of a headache, under the guise of demonstrating a self-exam.
A third has a hipster bartender feigning a friendly warning about over-the-line co-workers to a new female hire by demonstrating. He grabs her buttocks. Yet another of the films has a TV actor on set telling a wardrobe assistant, “Look who came to say hello” as he exposes himself during a clothing change.
Some of the short scenarios, presented through a fly-on-the-wall perspective, were based on real events. Each film, available on the project’s Facebook page, is three to five minutes long. All were directed by Sigal Avin, who launched the project in Israel in December.
The goal, Schwimmer and Avin said in a joint interview, is for “people to speak up against sexual harassment, whether they themselves have been victimized. … Our whole hope is that men and women will watch these and that we have put a face on what sexual harassment is.”
The initiative, as National Sexual Assault Awareness Month is underway, comes amid the rapid defection of advertisers last week from Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News Channel show because of sexual harassment allegations. It also follows the contentious presidential election, which included video of President Donald Trump talking about grabbing women by the genitals.
“Many people elected the president in spite of that,” Schwimmer said. “I don’t think most people are excited that he was boasting of committing sexual assault. I think that was a flaw but they overlooked it. For me, personally, that’s not something I can really condone in terms of character of a leader that I would like. That is something that is hard to explain to my daughter.”
