‘Stranger Things’ Star Grace Van Dien Alleges Movie Producer Pressured Her for Sex on Set: ‘I Cried’
“Stranger Things” star Grace Van Dien is speaking out about a #MeToo moment on set.
The actress, who plays Chrissy in the hit Netflix series, shared during a Twitch livestream that she is putting a pause on acting. “Stranger Things” is set to conclude after its upcoming fifth and final season.
“I’ve actually turned down, in the last two and a half weeks, four movies. Here’s the thing: I’ve seen that some people are upset with me for turning down acting projects and deciding to stream more, but the fact of the matter is, the last few projects I’ve worked on, I didn’t have the best experiences with some of the people I had to work for,” Van Dien shared. “And with streaming, I get to choose who I hang out with, who I talk to, etc. etc.”
She continued, “One of the last movies I did, one of the producers asked me to…like, he hired a girl that he was sleeping with and then he had her ask me to have a threesome with them. So like, that’s my boss. I didn’t [do it] and I cried and I was so upset, but it’s like, when people are like, ‘How is streaming better for your mental health?’ That’s how. I get to stay inside my home and play video games and I don’t have my boss asking me to have sex with him. That’s how this is better for my mental health.”
The actress, who has appeared in films like “What Comes Around,” “V for Vengeance,” and “Julius Caesar Live!,” continued, “But I handled it the right way. I told my management. My castmate, she was there with me and was like, ‘Did I just hear that correctly?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ And she was like, ‘Want to go talk a walk?’ I was like, ‘Yeah.’ And we just had a miserable time. We cried a lot on that shoot.”
Van Dien concluded, “That’s why I’m going to stick to streaming for a little bit, and I hope that’s not a huge wrench in your plans for me, but I’m happy here. And I’m developing my own projects and I’m hoping that someone decides to fund them because then I can be in control of my own set and I’m not going to ask my actors to sleep with me, so that’s cool, right?”
“Stranger Things” co-star Joseph Quinn recently addressed the online backlash Van Dien has endured playing his onscreen love interest. “It’s so awful,” Quinn said during a fan Q&A at Showmasters’ London Comic Con (via Digital Spy). “I was talking to her about it. The internet is a very unforgiving place. It’s a place where people can show a lot of support, or where people can rally around hatred and misinformation. It’s indicative of where we are culturally, just through association she was getting lambasted. It’s disgusting. I don’t know what to say other than it sucks.”