Yahoo Movies Bjork Elaborates on Harassment: Danish Director ‘Stroked Me,’ Made ‘Graphic Sexual Offers’
After Lars Von Trier denied Bjork’s allegations that an unnamed Danish director had sexually harassed her, the singer got specific with her allegations in a Facebook post Tuesday. Bjork and von Trier worked together on the 2000 film “Dancer in the Dark.”
In the post, she expresses sympathy with other women who hesitated to make their claims of sexual harassment public, and then goes on to accuse the still-unnamed director of “strok[ing] me sometimes for minutes against my wishes,” “making “unwanted whispered sexual offers with graphic descriptions,” and threatened to “climb from his room´s balcony over to mine in the middle of the night with a clear sexual intention , while his wife was in the room next door.”
Von Trier denied the allegations on Monday, telling the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, “That is not the case — although we didn’t get along, that’s a fact. … On the other hand, she delivered one of the greatest-ever performances in my movies.”
Producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen added, in a comment that may have lost something in translation, “As far as I remember, we were victims. That woman was stronger than both Lars von Trier and me and our company together.”
Bjork’s latest post follows in full below:
in the spirit of #metoo i would like to lend women around the world a hand with a more detailed description of my experience with a danish director . it feels extremely difficult to come out with something of this nature into the public , especially when immediately ridiculed by offenders . i fully sympathise with everyone who hesitates , even for years . but i feel it is the right time especially now when it could make a change . here comes a list of the encounters that i think count as sexual harassment :
1 after each take the director ran up to me and wrapped his arms around me for a long time in front of all crew or alone and stroked me sometimes for minutes against my wishes
2 when after 2 months of this i said he had to stop the touching , he exploded and broke a chair in front of everyone on set . like someone who has always been allowed to fondle his actresses . then we all got sent home .
3 during the whole filming process there were constant awkward paralysing unwanted whispered sexual offers from him with graphic descriptions , sometimes with his wife standing next to us .
4 while filming in sweden , he threatened to climb from his room´s balcony over to mine in the middle of the night with a clear sexual intention , while his wife was in the room next door . i escaped to my friends room . this was what finally woke me up to the severity of all this and made me stand my ground
5 fabricated stories in the press about me being difficult by his producer . this matches beautifully the weinstein methods and bullying . i have never eaten a shirt . not sure that is even possible .
6 i didnt comply or agree on being sexually harassed . that was then portrayed as me being difficult . if being difficult is standing up to being treated like that , i´ll own it .
hope
let´s break this curse
warmth
björk
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