Jenny Agutter says she 'can't fully understand' #MeToo victims

Jenny Agutter has said that she cannot ‘fully understand’ those who have revealed themselves to have been victims of abuse if they put themselves in situations of risk.

The veteran British actress and star of Ask The Midwife also said that she considered herself ‘lucky’ not to have become a victim of abuse.

“I can never fully understand the people who got themselves into problems,” she told the Radio Times.

“In the States, there were occasions when you might be asked to go to a private screening or someone’s place and you just didn’t do it – unless you found the person very attractive, in which case you did do it.

“But if they’re not really attractive, there’s nothing to be gained from it, because it’s obvious what you’re indicating by going.”

Agutter made her name as a child star in The Railway Children, and worked extensively in Hollywood through the 70s and 80s, starring in movies like Logan’s Run and An American Werewolf In London.

In recent years, she’s appeared in the Avengers movies.

“It’s terrible that anyone would use their power in that way. That’s wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong – no question about it,” she added.

“What is sad is to be in a situation where you have to negotiate it: you shouldn’t have to do that. I was very lucky never to have to.

“In the States I went out with someone who was actually in the studio system – a producer – and because of that I was a little bit protected.

“No one was going to hit on me, with him there! It was a bit like having the Mafia around you.”

Agutter was in a relationship with the director and producer Patrick Garland when she was 19, and Garland was in his mid-30s.

She goes on to say that had she felt herself entering a compromising situation, she’d have been ‘back out of the door rather fast!’

“Because there isn’t any part that’s worth that – and I think there’s an arrogance in me a little bit as well, which is, ‘If you’re not casting me because I’m right for the part, then why are we in this situation?’”

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