Laura Dern has claimed she was sexually harassed when she was a teenager.
Laura Dern
The 'Big Little Lies' star has revealed she was reminded by her mother, Diane Ladd, that she was allegedly assaulted when she was only 14-years-old, and up until that point she had been "justifying" the inappropriate behaviour.
Speaking on 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show', the 50-year-old actress said: "And a very interesting thing happened this morning. I woke up and I realised that in that space I talked about how I was one of the lucky ones because I was raised by actors who told me their stories and told me what to look out for, and I realised that I was I still justifying behaviour. And it was my mom who said, 'No, no, no, Laura - that was sexual assault. That was harassment. That was assault. You were 14 then.'
"You realise how in our culture we have justified, and therefore even condoned behaviour, as though it's the norm."
This news comes in the wake of the sexual harassment allegations made against Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused of sexually assaulting a number of women over a 30 year period.
Laura thinks it is "extraordinary" that a "tribe of women", including Cara Delevingne, Reese Witherspoon and Lena Headey, have recently started speaking out about their traumatic experiences in the entertainment business.
She continued: "It was an extraordinary experience, perhaps more than ever, to have this shared space and a tribe of women and artists talking about this industry, and ultimately therefore talking about sexual harassment in the workplace.
"I felt very moved by people being honest and direct."
And the 'Jurassic Park' star thinks the "most exciting part" in people opening up about their personal experiences is the plan to "move forward" and prevent any further exploitation in the future.
She said: "The most exciting part is in moving forward, we talked about the forming of a commission, which Kathy Kennedy presented ... even anonymously, to reach out and say, 'There is an abuse of power here and something is not OK.'"
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