“Stranger Things” Grace Van Dien revealed she is abandoning her acting career after facing alleged sexual harassment by a producer at her workplace.
Van Dien was put-off by the experience on-set and said she will be focusing her efforts to livestreaming on Twitch, as it offers a safer platform. “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,” Van Dien claimed. “So, like, that’s my boss.”
Stranger Things star Grace Van Dien says she’s focusing on Twitch streaming instead of acting after producer asked her for sexual favors pic.twitter.com/ziEBFiQgAZ
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Van Dien addressed fans that had questioned why she was turning down roles.
“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 said.
She then offered more insight into the alleged sexual harassment.
“I handled it the right way. I told my management,” she told the outlet TooFab.
Van Dien did not identify the producer, and didn’t specify which movie set she was working on at the time of the alleged proposition. (RELATED: REPORT: Tiger Woods’ Ex-Girlfriend Launches Lawsuit To Lift Gag-Order And Share Details Of Their Relationship)
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She then told fans this wasn’t an isolated situation.
“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?,’” Van Dien said.
The two stepped aside and shared their alleged experiences.
“And we just had a miserable time. We cried a lot on that shoot,” Van Dien said, according to TooFab.
She went on to explain that livestreaming offered her more control over the content, the extent to which she reveals personal details and who she spends her time with, according to TooFab.
This shift to livestreaming has proven to be better for her mental health.
“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,” she said, according to TooFab.
The actress still wants to build her career and is launching her own projects.
“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?” Van Dien said, according to TooFab.