Actress Jenny McCarthy has again publicly told her story of sexual harassment and a threat by actor Steven Seagal, reprising the allegation as new reports have surfaced of his past misconduct against women.
McCarthy, speaking on SiriusXM Thursday, detailed her encounter with Seagal at a 1995 tryout for the film “Under Siege 2.” She first told her story back in 1998, but recounted it again in the wake of allegations by actress Julianna Margulies that Seagal made similar overtures to her.
McCarthy said she went to try out for the film and “purposefully wore a muumuu to the audition so the casting people would actually look at my face and watch my work.”
At the audition, McCarthy took notice that no one else was in the casting room.
“So I stand across from (Seagal) and he plops onto a sofa that’s near a fireplace,” she said. “And he points at the sofa cushion next to him, saying to me, ‘Take a seat. Relax.’ I said, ‘No, thank you! I’m just really excited to read for this part. And I have so much energy I need to stand.’”
Seagal began to recount his experiences on combat missions before telling McCarthy, “‘You know, this part has nudity in it. And I can’t really tell what your body looks like in that dress that you’re wearing.’”
McCarthy admitted to being alarmed by the obvious ploy. “In my head, I’m like, ‘Okay here we go. Sound the alarms, this is not a test, this is the real thing, activate all defense systems,’” McCarthy said. “But I so wanted to legitimately read for this part that I wasn’t gonna give up yet. So I told him, ‘Listen. My agent says there’s no nudity. I specifically asked her and she said no.’”
McCarthy claims Seagal said, “There is off-camera nudity,” and asked her to lower her dress. A distressed McCarthy said she asked, “Could we please read the scene?” but Seagal again made his request “so [he] can see [her] breasts.”
At that point, McCarthy started crying and claimed she yelled, “Go buy my Playboy video — it’s on sale for $19.99,” before departing.
The ordeal wasn’t over, though. As she reached her car, Seagal had followed her, and allegedly warned her not to tell anyone of their encounter “or else.”
“It was so disheartening,” she said. “And I thought about like, ‘I was the last girl that day. How many girls had to take off their clothes? How many girls had to do more?’ It just so grossed me out.”
Seagal’s spokesperson has denied McCarthy’s allegations to at least one media outlet.
Earlier this month, Margulies said on the SiriusXM Just Jenny show that she was asked to Seagal’s hotel room when she was 23. The meeting was ostensibly for casting purposes.
Margulies said when she arrived at the hotel, no casting director was there, but Seagal was. When she entered his hotel room, “I saw his gun, which I had never seen a gun in real life.”
Margulies said she got out of the room “unscathed. I never was raped. And I never was harmed. And I don’t know how I got out of that hotel room. … I sorta screamed my way out.”