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Original poster

Noel Clarke sexual harassment allegations, suspended by BAFTA

878 replies

Cwenthryth · 29/04/2021 20:41

www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/apr/29/actor-noel-clarke-accused-of-groping-harassment-and-bullying-by-20-women

🤬🤬🤬

Especially galling that BAFTA was seemingly made aware of this before giving him his very recent honour. I watched his acceptance speech and found it really moving in terms of celebrating a working class black man’s success in a historically white industry. Turns out he’s an (alleged) sexual abuser. Fucking great.

OP posts:
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Standrewsschool · 01/05/2021 22:13

@Waterlemon
“ But he wasn’t the only one - many of the boys behaved in the same way. I’m finding all of this quite difficult To process, and I’m left wondering about my teen years, what was “bants” and what was sexual harassment.”

I’ve had a similar conversation with dh. Ie. When does banter become sexual harassment? I concluded it comes down to consent.

What became clear during our conversation is the parameters of acceptable behaviour has changed over the years. For example, wolf-whistling was acceptable in 70s but not today. I think that’s what surprises me most about NC’s case. He has been in tv in the modern ages, where I thought people were more aware of the boundaries, unless in the 70s.

Standrewsschool · 01/05/2021 22:16

Nb. I’m not saying what happened in the 70s was acceptable. Just that times were different then.

Oversize · 01/05/2021 22:22

I'd say it was done in the 70s but not acceptable to those of us who were on the receiving end of it.
At 11 years old.
In a school uniform.
At least a dozen times a day.
And cat calling vile stuff out of their car windows.
I wished every single one of those fuckers driving past and doing that would crash their cars.

Oversize · 01/05/2021 22:24

So no. It wasn't acceptable in the 70s any more than dick pics (indecent exposure equivalent IMO) are now. It was just done so often that what was the point complaining and who would you even complain to?

Horehound · 01/05/2021 22:27

God what an utter twat. He is vile

EsmaCannonball · 01/05/2021 22:34

I remember that Russell Brand story from the time. I know that even a straightforward drama location shoot in the UK costs around £10 000 an hour, so an actor holding up location filming on a US movie set must have been costing the company thousands. The pressure that poor young woman (probably a freelancer or on a short-term contract or agency staff) must have been under would have been enormous. Why did nobody stick up for her? Why were people more angry with him for wasting their time than they were for him bullying a junior crew member into performing a sexual favour? Why do television companies put out statements about taking sexual harassment seriously but still give him work? Could they genuinely claim to be shocked and saddened if more evidence of this behaviour came to light?

ShoppingPrecinctPrincess · 01/05/2021 22:47

Russell Brand is the sleaziest and most self-satisfied, pompous git. And that interview he did with the Guardian about he looks after his kids' spiritual wellbeing whereas his wife tends to deal more with their day to day needs like getting changed and fed...

HATE him.

ShoppingPrecinctPrincess · 01/05/2021 22:48

Well done, Katy Perry, on getting rid!

CarmelBeach · 01/05/2021 22:49

[quote TimeIsUp]It gets worse - a 'prank' in which NC tried to get one of the women now come forward, to pee on his friend telling her to 'Just take your fanny out and pee on him, what's wrong with you?'

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9533007/Noel-Clarke-told-one-accusers-f-pee-friend-prank.html#comments[/quote]
I'm starting to feel like he's trolling us. WTAF.

CarmelBeach · 01/05/2021 22:54

froggy do lots of people leave the business because of stuff like this?

On another note, I was wondering when the case against Spacey is being heard.

lulugee · 01/05/2021 23:17

@TimeIsUp I'm not sure what the big deal is about the prank? Sorry but it was, a prank? Have we lost our sense of humour now.

TedisnotH · 01/05/2021 23:30

A prank where they try to convince a woman to piss in a mans mouth? Really? Wtaf?

TedisnotH · 01/05/2021 23:31

To save his life from an allergic reaction to fruit she was persuaded to give him? A PRANK?
Fuck that shit

TedisnotH · 01/05/2021 23:32

A totally false claim, a totally false 999 call?
Fuck that

ArcheryAnnie · 01/05/2021 23:44

In any industry (business, charity, science, entertainment, whatever) there's always a constantly shifting network of older women, warning each other about which men should never be left alone with an intern, that sort of thing. Most of them don't speak out because it could not just mean the loss of their jobs, and their careers, but also because many of the men involved are fairly litigious. Even when you win, you are subject to years of emotional and financial hell. Men have the power, and they use it.

TedisnotH · 02/05/2021 00:12

Yes, I remember older women mentoring me, and doing the same for younger women. Warning us, basically.
Male dominated environment, engineering, and so much sexism and mysogenistic crap.

Caneloalvarez · 02/05/2021 00:46

@PearPickingPorky @froggygoneacourting @youshallnotpass9 thank you for your replies. On the surface it's easy to look at it and say, why did it take so long for something to be done (and there are a lot of comments online to that effect). But I want to really understand how someone like Noel manages to get away with it for so long. To be honest it is f-ing terrifying how he (and others like him) have gotten away with it. It really sickens me. For the first time I realise how lucky I am that I've never come across this sort of thing in my line of work. How distressing and soul destroying it must be for the victims, to have to wait and wait and wait to be heard.

It also really worries me that others cover up the abhorrent behaviour, or turn a blind eye. They are truly part of the problem. It does make you look at his other male colleagues and wonder... What did they know?

As for all the posters saying they had a funny feeling about him... Well I had no idea, I didn't follow him too closely but thought he seemed pretty decent and humble, and loved the gritty London scenes he brought to life. Such a waste, such a disappointment.

MercyBooth · 02/05/2021 02:02

Two actors i follow on Twitter seem decent blokes. Samuel West and Reece Dinsdale. I think the former was part of the Equity council but not in recent years

Ohchristmastreeohchristmastree · 02/05/2021 07:23

@Caneloalvarez

Can anyone in the industry give insight to this.. why would it take so long for everyone to come forward with these allegations? I understand not wanting to be the only voice and protecting your earning potential.. but when Adam Deacon was saying this years ago, I would have thought it would have prompted people to come forward sooner i.e. they wouldn't have been a lone voice. Even people in the same films as Deacon are only coming forward now. And Noel was allowed to go on and on and on.

I know it must be terribly hard to come forward with something like this. I think I'm just so surprised he got away with it for so long, seems as though it was going on left right and centre. Was it the Guardian that connected these incidents? Or women gradually talking to each other?

What is the industry missing? Maybe an independent body where incidents and complaints can be made anonymously and reviewed.. and acted upon, if there are numerous complaints against one individual?

IME (not in the industry) it’s because the likes of NC gaslight, bully, manipulate, twist, triangulate, lie, make friends in higher places, slander and scare others in order to get away with it.

I was bullied in a completely average admin middle management role. I was bullied more when I called the bully out, she also went more covert. After two years of feeling battered (no actually physical harm) I was in no position to take it further. I left saying that if anyone else took it forward I would make an official complaint with them. There were so many complaints about this person, but no-one ever took it further.

MsTSwift · 02/05/2021 07:50

Whole system set up by and for men that’s why. We are there on sufferance and have to bend and shape ourselves into these male structures to survive. The older I get the more I see this quite clearly.

Piggywaspushed · 02/05/2021 09:03

Just on a point of order re Russell Brand and Billy Connolly, Connolly categorically stated the story was 'complete bollocks'.

RB remains a shit but there does not seem to be truth in this story.

TimeIsUp · 02/05/2021 09:39

[quote lulugee]@TimeIsUp I'm not sure what the big deal is about the prank? Sorry but it was, a prank? Have we lost our sense of humour now. [/quote]
Yep, I must have truly lost my sense of humour.

But thank fuck I have because I hope the day never comes I'd laugh at a woman who was distressed, thinking she'd just caused someone an allergic reaction, and then being shouted at to cock her leg up on a chair and pee on a man. Just looks cruel and humiliating to me.

froggygoneacourting · 02/05/2021 09:43

froggy do lots of people leave the business because of stuff like this?

So many. So so so many. It's awful.

^Samuel West is a former neighbour of mine and is lovely. Never heard a bad word. I haven't personally come across Reece Dinsdale.