By Sammie Jones-
Actress and writer Tracy Ann Oberman has accused theater director Max Stafford-Clark of being “dis-inhibited and provocative, objectifying and disrespectful to women back in 1992”. It was revealed last week that the play writer was forced to leave the company he founded following a complaint about sexualized comments.
Oberman, a former Eastenders star, has also featured in Doctor Who and Friday Night Dinner. has written for the Guardian about her experience with Stafford-Clark, saying his actions left her feeling “uncomfortable, sexualized and propositioned”.
The actress said Stafford-Clark often made reference to the pair having sex, and extended his sexual fantasies to expressing an interest in a threesome with her and another female actress. She alleges he once inappropriately offered to accompany her to the toilet. The actress, who has expressed her plight in an article with the UK Guardian said she found the experience “humiliating and disconcerting”.
Reporters at the Guardian were also told that other women who worked with the director independently complained of inappropriate, sexualised comments to them in the 80s and 90s too. It is not unusual for rich and well established professional Americans to sexually harass women they work with or plan to work with.
The practice of big bosses abusing their position of power and authority by sexually objectifying women has been going on since the dawn of time. Successful bosses in many parts of the UK are equally guilty of such sexual bullying, but this type of sexual misconduct is more rife in America. Affluent stars and bosses often feel the arrogant and unjustified right to sexually harass women and use all sorts of unacceptable innuendo when talking to their female staff or co-professionals. One slightly disturbing thing is why these women wait two decades to speak out, but when dealing with powerful and rich men, it can’t always be easy to expose their sexual harassment or misconduct. Women are especially reluctant to expose such randy and misbehaving individuals when the females are relying on them financially for their wages or some expected deal that can give their careers a lift.
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However, women of today are becoming stronger and more aware. There is no need to be intimidated by powerful men no matter their position. A shrewd woman would bide her time, try and get what she wants first, and then can drop her own explosive revelation against sexually disrespectful men. It is also important for women to never consider any man to hold the keys to her success or destiny. We must trust our inner powers of hard work and karma to produce the right level of professional favor from other sources, where one source proves potentially dangerous. women feel vulnerable when a man on whom they perceive their well being to depend, indicates that the women have a sexual price to pay for the success they deserve and have earned.
A spokesperson for Stafford-Clark released a standard press statement to the eye of media.com that read: “Mr Stafford-Clark wholeheartedly apologises if his behaviour has at any time made anyone feel uncomfortable or upset. He strongly denies any unlawful or aggressive behavior. Beyond that he is not in a position to comment on the specific allegations, some of which are said to have occurred 30 years ago.”
The Guardian revealed On Friday that Stafford-Clark was booted out in September after the company’s education manager, Gina Abolins, complained of sexually inappropriate remarks, from the Theatre director. One of those remarks was quoted to be “Back in the day, I’d have been up you like a rat up a drainpipe.” The director’s former personal assistant Steffi Holtz also jumped on the bandwagon of complaints, saying Stafford-Clarke made a number of sexualized comments to her. Oberman said in her Guardian article that ”on more than one occasion, Stafford-Clarke inferred that it would only take an affair with a high-profile director for my career to rocket. Three years later, I bumped into him at a press night and he repeated the offer,” she wrote.
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Stafford-Clark spokesperson claims the director suffered from pseudobulbar palsy and “occasional dis inhibition” after a stroke and brain injury in 2006. The stroke apparently caused him to display dis-inhibited and compulsive behavior and his usual (at times provocative) behavior being magnified”. This excuse is laughable, in short it is BS. Nobody should believe such easily fictitious explanation for continuous sexually inappropriate comments. A man suffering with symptoms of the type describes should be aware of this, and always have somebody else present when dealing with woman. They should also be on a medication that helps them control any side effects of the stroke.
EXCITED
Abigail Morris, former artistic director of the Soho Theatre and now director of the Jewish Museum, said she was excited when she was given the opportunity to work as assistant director to Stafford-Clark at the Royal Court in the late 1980s. She was in her early 20s.
But she said he regularly made sexualized remarks to her and other colleagues. “He would always comment on what I was wearing, he commented on my legs all the time,” she said. “He would keep being inappropriate – for example if he was directing a straightforward piece of text he would unnecessarily make it very sexual and graphically explicit.”
She added: “He often commented on what I looked like, what other women looked like and what he’d like to do to us. He regularly used his power to try and humiliate me.
“It’s hard to speak out, even after so many years, but women are consistently silenced. His belittling behavior felt so degrading but I don’t want to feel anymore that it’s me who’s dirty and ashamed.”
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