Arnold Schwarzenegger Praises Eliza Dushku After ‘True Lies’ Molestation Accusation
Eliza Dushku penned a detailed Facebook post Saturday that claimed Joel Kramer, one of Hollywood’s leading stunt coordinators, sexually molested her during the filming of True Lies, when she was just 12 years old.
Her former costars – Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold and Arnold Schwarzenegger – have all spoken out in support of Dushku’s story, with Schwarzenegger in particular taking a pointed stand defending the actress.
“Tom, you bet your ass all of us would have done something,” he tweeted Monday after Arnold noted that he, Curtis, Schwarzenegger and director James Cameron would have taken action had they known at the time. “I’m shocked and saddened for Eliza but I am also proud of her – beyond being a great talent and an amazing woman, she is so courageous.”
Tom, you bet your ass all of us would have done something. I’m shocked and saddened for Eliza but I am also proud of her – beyond being a great talent and an amazing woman, she is so courageous. https://t.co/EJJbkdior2
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) January 16, 2018
I promise you @JimCameron @Schwarzenegger @jamieleecurtis would’ve done something too. We all love & are proud of @elizadushku #metoo https://t.co/4rmjfWqj39
— Tom Arnold (@TomArnold) January 14, 2018
In her Facebook post Saturday, Dushku alleged that Kramer, then 36, groomed her and “methodically built my and my parents’ trust” for months before he invited her to his Miami hotel room on the pretense of taking her for a swim and a first sushi dinner.
“I remember vividly how he methodically drew the shades and turned down the lights; how he cranked up the air-conditioning to what felt like freezing levels, where exactly he placed me on one of the two hotel room beds, what movie he put on the television (Coneheads); how he disappeared in the bathroom and emerged, naked, bearing nothing but a small hand towel held flimsy at his mid-section,” she wrote, adding that Kramer then “wrapped me with his gigantic writhing body, and rubbed all over me.”
Dushku wrote that at the time, she recounted the horrific events to her parents, two adult friends and one of her older brothers, but no one was entirely sure what to do. When she told one of her “tough adult” female friends what had happened shortly afterward, and the friend confronted Kramer on set, Dushku remembered that “by no small coincidence, [she] was injured from a stunt-gone-wrong on the Harrier jet.”
“Whereas he was supposed to be my protector, he was my abuser,” Dushku wrote. On Monday, Deadline reported that two other women had come forward with accusations of sexual misconduct against Kramer, including one woman who was 16 when she and the stunt coordinator allegedly engaged in sexual activity.
Kramer has denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
In an essay published on Huffington Post Monday, Curtis revealed that Dushku had shared the story with her “privately” a few years ago, but noted that the details are no less shocking now that they are out in the open.
“We have all started to awaken to the fact that the terrible abuses now commonplace in daily news reports have been going on for a very long time,” Curtis wrote. “Unconscionably, those reports frequently come along with claims by the perpetrators that, as adults, those perpetrated against had some part in it.”
“Eliza’s story has now awaked us from our denial slumber to a new, horrific reality,” she continued. “The abuse of children.”