The Royals: 25 Women Support Showrunner Harassment Claims; Elizabeth Hurley Calls It ‘Shocking’
Just three days after female cast and crew members from One Tree Hill released a joint statement accusing former showrunner Mark Schwahn of sexual harassment, the women of The Royals, Schwahn’s current TV project, are following suit.
Twenty-five actresses and female staffers from the E! drama contributed to the statement, which was released Thursday, claiming that Schwahn engaged in “repeated unwanted sexual harassment of multiple female members of cast and crew.”
Hours earlier, Royals star Alexandra Park released her own statement on social media, in which she said she was “devastated” to confirm that she has also experienced harassment under Schwahn.
E! has suspended Schwahn from The Royals, which is slated to return for its fourth season in 2018. Read the newest statement in full below:
“Upon reading a statement from the ladies of One Tree Hill, a statement from their Royal sisters could not possibly go unwritten.
Despite hearing rumours about his behaviour on One Tree Hill, those of us involved from the early stages went into the filming of the pilot hoping they were just that – rumours. By the time we wrapped this had irrevocably proven not to be the case. It became all too apparent reading their statement earlier this week that the betrayal and anger so many of us had experienced during our time on The Royals is not exclusively ours. And we were angry then, and we are angry now.
This statement is a collection of voices from those women involved in The Royals who would like to finally respond to the behaviour of our showrunner. Who felt the inclination to abuse his power and influence in an environment where he had it over women who felt they did not. This manifested itself in the repeated unwanted sexual harassment of multiple female members of cast and crew.
Where we should have been excited to meet new female cast and crew members, we felt nauseating concern in case they too should have him track down their mobile number. Where we should have offered our friends who auditioned for The Royalsscene help and advice, we offered warnings about the man they would meet in the room. More than all of this, where we should all collectively have felt pride over jobs hard won and roles much loved, we felt undermined as artists and creatives. And in many cases, no more than a sum of body attributes.
Whilst voraciously condemning the actions of one man, we would like to make note of our gratitude to others. Thank you to so many of the Royal men who ensured we were never alone in social situations with him and took two steps towards us for his every one. Thank you to the friends, loved ones and partners who supported us at the time and ever more so now in coming forwards.
But thank you most of all to the women of One Tree Hill, whose solid gold backbones have moved us enormously. To you we doff our crowns.
Kind regards
The Ladies of The Royals.
Hatty Preston, Sophie Colquhoun, Alex Watherson, Lydia Rose Bewley, April Church, Annalise Beusnel, Poppy Corby-Tuech, Florence Chow, Charlie Jones, Isabella Artitzone, Jade Armstrong, Rachel Walsh, Tania Vernava, Bonnie Vannucci, Merritt Patterson, Kate Benton, Jerry-Jane Pears, Jodie Simone, Kate Royds, Leonie Hartard, Lisa Mitton, Marie Deehan, Alice Woodward, Rachel Lennon, Kimberly Macbeth.”
UPDATE: Series star Elizabeth Hurley has released her own statement, in which she claims to have had no knowledge of Schwahn mistreating any of the show’s female cast or crew members:
I have loved working on The Royals. I am devastated by recent reports. This is my statement. pic.twitter.com/7c7VCAgPjr
— Elizabeth Hurley (@ElizabethHurley) November 16, 2017
It’s unfortunate, if he was really this bad, that no one reported him or told him to knock it off before now. These sorts of things should not be allowed to continue for so long.
Yeah, it’s nauseating that networks and producers, who have people on set so had to know “if he was really this bad”, and had the actual power to stop it, let it continue for so long.
Same could be said for the countless other men in power that are being exposed now.
Good for them. This is such a strong statement of solidarity. Standing together like this is so powerful. Its not just individual women, its groups of women standing with each other to share their experiences and support one another.
I have always wondered why Merritt Patterson (Ophelia) left this show and I could never find an answer. Maybe it has nothing to do with this but it has crossed my mind in the past 24 hours.
Since she signed the group statement, I’d say it probably had quite a bit to do with her decision.
Good for them! Hopefully, this might open the eyes of those who still defend Mark by asking for proof/ details and justifying Mark’s behavior
I’m not questioning whether Mark did something bad but I would like to no more details. I feel like we need to know to determine if one can ever accept a return. At this point, without more information, I would think a year from now Mark could come back and say he’s gotten help and is remorseful and would be able to go back to a position of power and create a new show. And thats because we don’t know how bad it is. Is it Harvey Weinstein/Bill Cosby level? Did he just pursue them and make remarks like Brett Ratner?
I understand what you are saying, because let’s be honest, that’s probably exactly what will happen. He will come back and say that he has gotten help and is remorseful, etc, but I don’t really need to see point by point details by some of these actresses. If you read between the lines of these statements, you can get a glimpse into what he was doing. This behavior has been going on for 9 seasons of One Tree Hill and now with his current show, so nothing has changed. I hope he never gets the opportunity to work in the industry again and I hope that this doesn’t negatively impact anyone who was strong enough to come forward.
had*
Right, I don’t necessarily need a thorough breakdown of what happened in every situation. But I fear at this point the accusations have been vague enough that if some executive loved Mark’s pitch for some new show 14 months from now, I think Mark could weasel his way out of this.
I think additional details will come out because there are enough women making similar comments at this point. I agree with you in that sense that more details need to come out to bury him where he belongs.
I think there’s also a difference between potentially pitching a show, receiving a creator credit, but then not being involved in the project (similar to an author signing over the rights to their novel and then not being involved) but to put this man in a position of power again would be irresponsible.
It sounds like you do want a point by point explanation of what these women went through. Why not just accept the word of DOZENS of women that this guy is a predator and be done with him?
Its staggering how the statements of this many women is STILL not equal to the percieved damage on a man’s career. How many women have to speak up for their experiences to be equal to that of a man’s hurt feelings
I do accept their words. I never suggested otherwise. I just want to know how much of a predator he is. Did he make unprofessional and inappropriate comments? Did he grope them? Did he rape them? The statements thus far have been very vague. I’m a man and maybe it’s my own naivete because I’ve never experienced something like this so I can’t read between the lines.
What type of behavior would be acceptable or forgivable for you?
I don’t think any of the behavior i can imagine would be acceptable or forgiveable but somewhere along the line he’s going to want to work again and the question people will have to ask is just how bad was he?
Shouldn’t pretty much any behavior be forgivable if the person is truly sorry and has taken steps to improve them self? Isn’t that the point of contrition, forgiveness, and rehabilitation? I mean, most murders are eligible for parole, so shouldn’t the guy who hit on a bunch of girls get the same chance as a murderer?
I think Elizabeth Hurley being shocked by this is just showing how Schwahn used his power over people. He probably knew that someone like Elizabeth Hurley wouldn’t put up with him and has enough clout to go to the network where as someone like Alexandra Park was just happy to be a series regular on a show that she was fearful to come forward.
Ya. He knew not to mess with her. He’s not an idiot. He wasn’t big enough (like Weinstein) to mess with someone of her level
I would say it shows that she has either ostracized herself that much from the rest of the cast that she was unaware or that she’s flat out lying. From the rest of the reports, it doesn’t sound like he was quiet about his behavior.
And the main difference between Liz Hurley and all the women on that letter is that I’ve heard of Liz Hurley. She doesn’t need the publicity or the sympathy, because she’s already famous. She also seems like someone cool and down to earth that doesn’t take herself too seriously, which is obviously a rarity in that profession.
And quite possibly she knew how the game is played and worked it to her advantage. She said it herself, he flirted and told dirty jokes and she told them right back and had a good time hanging out with him to the point that she didn’t really think there was anything wrong with what he was doing. Remember, no one accused him of sexual assault or of retaliating against an actress for rejecting him or telling him to stop. Those would be things to go after this guy for.
So the fact that you’re saying these women “need” fame and Liz Hurley doesn’t, tells me they you will not believe these women regardless of what they say. So you should exclude yourself from this conversation, because you are part of the problem, Jon.
The fact is these women didn’t say anything, they made vague and cryptic statements without giving any real facts. If they came out and said ‘he did this to me’ then there can be a discussion and other people can corroborate or deny it. These aren’t even allegations of conduct, these are allegations alleging that some unspecified conduct took place. Sorry, but I refuse to make a judgment on any issue without having at least a good portion of the facts. And anyone who doesn’t want to make informed decisions is the problem, not those who without judgment.
The difference is Schwahn doesn’t have power over Hurley compared to the other women because of her fame/status. That’s what you don’t get. Schwahn took advantage of his position of power to be inappropriate. “How the game is played”? You realize this isn’t a game, right? It’s not “playing hard to get” as you mentioned in your other posts. You keep talking about the actresses, but what about the crew? They’re not going to get famous off of this. Why would they add themselves to something just because? Does this upset you so much because this is stuff you do in your real life and are trying to convince yourself it’s okay? Have you ever felt like you had to go along with a boss (even for something small) because it’s your boss and you don’t want to offend/anger/distance yourself from him? Or have you only had bosses just like you? You might think these women “need sympathy” but I think you could benefit from a little empathy.
Now I can make up my mind. Someone finally came out with specific allegations and they were corroborated by other people. We should demand accountability from both sides.
Look, there is NO WAY he is returning to The Royals, so we can all move on now.