The Hellboy star claims the disgraced film-maker sexually harassed her and then suggested that he could have her killed if she told her story 
 
 Selma Blair has alleged that the film-maker James Toback threatened to kill her after he sexually harassed her in 1999. 
 
 
 
 The actor, known for roles in Hellboy and Cruel Intentions, shared her story with Vanity Fair, joining more than 200 other women who have gone public with allegations against the director in the wake of revelations about Harvey Weinstein’s history of sexual misconduct. Oscar nominee Rachel McAdams has also revealed a similar tale of Toback’s alleged behavior. 
 
 James Toback: the film-maker accused of being a sexual predator Read more 
 
 Blair, 45, decided to speak out about her experience with Toback after last week’s Los Angeles Times report, which compiled testimony from 38 different women who alleged they had been sexual harassed by the 72-year-old. Toback, the director of films such as Two Girls and a Guy and Seduced and Abandoned, has denied any wrongdoing, claiming he had not met any of the women quoted in the article or that if he had, their meetings were brief. A follow-up piece claimed that 200 women had since shared similar stories. 
 
 “When he called these women liars, and said he didn’t recall meeting them and that the behavior alleged could not be attributed to him, I just felt rage and an obligation to speak publicly now,” Blair said. 
 
 Her experience with Toback took place in 1999 during a meeting to discuss his film Harvard Man, which he had written but not yet cast. While waiting for him, a hostess approached Blair and told her Toback would not be coming down but that he had requested she join him in his hotel room. “Against my better judgment, I went upstairs,” Blair told the magazine. 
 
 In the hotel room, Toback allegedly asked Blair to take her clothes off and perform a monologue. When he asked her to have sex with him, Blair refused, but Toback insisted she let him pleasure himself in front of her and said: “You cannot leave until I have release.” 
 
 She continued: “He walked me back to the bed. He sat me down. He got on his knees. And he continued to press so hard against my leg. He was greasy and I had to look into those big brown eyes. I tried to look away, but he would hold my face. So I was forced to look into his eyes. And I felt disgust and shame, and like nobody would ever think of me as being clean again after being this close to the devil. His energy was so sinister.” 
 
 
 
 Blair claims that Toback intimidated her into keeping quiet about their interaction by threatening her life. 
 
 “There is a girl who went against me,” she quoted him as saying. “She was going to talk about something I did. I am going to tell you, and this is a promise, if she ever tells anybody, no matter how much time she thinks went by, I have people who will pull up in a car, kidnap her and throw her in the Hudson river with cement blocks on her feet. You understand what I’m talking about, right?” 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rachel McAdams in 2016. Photograph: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images 
 
 McAdams, who was 21 at the time of her encounter with Toback, said she was invited to audition at his hotel in Toronto. 
 
 “He invited me to sit on the floor, which was a bit awkward,” the Mean Girls star said. “Pretty quickly the conversation turned quite sexual and he said, ‘You know, I just have to tell you. I have masturbated countless times today thinking about you since we met at your audition.’” 
 
 Toback then allegedly asked if he could see her pubic hair; shortly after she excused herself from the room. “I was very lucky that I left and he didn’t actually physically assault me in any way,” she said. 
 
 These latest allegations against Toback come shortly after Julianne Moore tweeted about her own experience with Toback in the 1980s. Toback declined Vanity Fair’s request for comment on Blair and McAdams’s allegations. ||||| @ GlennWhipp 1 - # JamesToback approached me in the 80's on Columbus Ave with the same language - wanted me to audition, come to his apt. ||||| A week after The New York Times and The New Yorker ran back-to-back reports cataloguing Harvey Weinstein’s alleged serial sexual harassment of women in Hollywood, actress Selma Blair saw a story on HuffPost about writer and director James Toback’s new film that made her blood run cold. The piece, written by a female reporter who interviewed Toback at the Venice Film Festival, was titled “James Toback Gets Us, He Truly Gets Us in ‘The Private Life of a Modern Woman.’” Blair tweeted the story with a single word in response: “Ironic.” In the days that followed, Blair, who has appeared in films such as Cruel Intentions, Legally Blonde, and Hellboy, learned about a group of women on social media who claimed to have been sexually harassed by the director (Two Girls and a Guy) and Oscar-nominated writer (Bugsy). Their accounts sounded eerily familiar. The group, which included Blair, worked with Los Angeles Times reporter Glenn Whipp on a story that broke on October 22, citing 38 women in total who alleged sexual harassment suffered at the hands of Toback. Since then, the number of accusers has risen to more than 200 women—including Blair and Oscar-nominated actress Rachel McAdams, who both spoke exclusively to Vanity Fair this week about their experiences with Toback. (Toback, 72, has written for Vanity Fair in the past. When reached by phone Wednesday evening, Toback said he had no comment on any of the allegations.) Blair, 45, and McAdams, 38, tell remarkably similar stories about Toback’s modus operandi—the requests to meet him in hotel rooms, flattery about their acting skills, the promise of a role in the movie Harvard Man, which opened in 2001. The consistent themes in the stories of Blair, McAdams, and the hundreds of actresses who have come forward with their own tales of harassment hint at some of the reasons charges of sexual misconduct have plagued Hollywood since its inception. Actors and actresses, newcomers especially, essentially are always auditioning—any encounter, especially in a company town such as Los Angeles, could lead to a big break. The situation is compounded by the fact that many acting courses teach students to use, explore, and expose their vulnerabilities. So when a threatening individual manipulates a performer’s insecurities in a meeting purportedly related to an acting role, the experience can be confusing. Explained McAdams, “I was 21 and in the middle of theater school when I met [Toback]. Theater school was a very safe space.” But Toback, she said, “used the same language during my audition—that you have to take risks and sometimes you’re going to be uncomfortable and sometimes it’s going to feel dangerous. And that’s a good thing—when there is danger in the air and you feel like you are out of your comfort zone.” It is easy to see how a young actress at the start of her career might respond to a director’s lecherous behavior as an acting exercise or “test.” In an opinion piece in The New York Times that detailed an incident with Harvey Weinstein, Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o noted that “body work” is part of the coursework at fine-arts programs at schools such as Yale. Perhaps Weinstein knew this when he reportedly asked to massage and be massaged by women. Perhaps Toback knew this when he allegedly asked young women, after rattling off his film credits and famous friends, to trust him and disrobe so that he could help them become better actresses. When reports of Toback’s alleged harassment began pouring in, both Blair and McAdams were motivated to speak out. Blair, who cooperated with the initial Los Angeles Times story on the condition her name not be used, said Toback threatened her life after their encounter, which she said took place in 1999. And in the nearly 20 years that followed, the actress only told two people about her experience. “I still felt so powerless and scared,” Blair said, describing her emotional state earlier this week. “I kept thinking, ‘O.K., is there a big actress who is going to come out so that she can be the face of this? I want to bring as much awareness to this harassment as possible because I want Toback to be held accountable.” Toback denied the allegations to the Los Angeles Times, claiming that he had never met any of the then-38 accusers or, if he did, the meetings were very brief. He also claimed that for the last 22 years it had been “biologically impossible” for him to do what he was accused of, citing diabetes and a heart condition. “When he called these women liars, and said he didn’t recall meeting them and that the behavior alleged could not be attributed to him, I just felt rage and an obligation to speak publicly now,” Blair said. “I did not want to talk about this ever again,” McAdams said. “However, even though it is a really bad memory, I feel like some good could come from talking about it now.” What follow are edited excerpts from the actresses’ conversations with Vanity Fair. 
 
 Selma Blair’s representatives arranged for her to meet Toback and described him as a “really interesting and odd guy,” who could help her gain credibility with the indie-film crowd. (She had filmed Cruel Intentions, but it had not yet been released.) Blair’s team said Toback would only meet in his hotel room; Blair insisted that they meet in the hotel restaurant. The two were meant to discuss a project Toback had written called Harvard Man , so the actress dressed accordingly—a pleated Y.S.L. skirt, a grosgrain ribbon, and a cable-knit sweater. That afternoon, I arrived at the restaurant and sat down at a table. After a bit, the hostess came up to me and told me that James Toback could not make it down, but that he wanted me to meet him in his room. Against my better judgment, I went upstairs. I was rattled, and looking back, I don’t think James Toback ever planned to come down to the restaurant. I went in the room feeling a little off balance about the arrangement, but he seemed nonplussed. He pulled out the script and said, “I look at you, and I see that we have a real connection. You could be an incredible actress, just by your eyes. But I can tell you don’t have confidence.” He said, “Where are your parents?” I was thinking, “Why is he trying to make me feel so uncomfortable?” But I realize now he was really trying to figure out what support system I had. I answered him. My mother was in Michigan, and I had an estranged relationship with my father. James said, “You know, I could have him killed.” He sat back in his chair and said really confidently, “I do it all the time. I know people.” Now I’m even more nervous, because he’s told me I have no confidence, he said he could have someone killed, and he said we had a connection—which no one had said to me before in this business. I really believed that when he started to talk . . . that he was going to be my mentor. That is how he got into my brain. You know, in acting classes they get into your personal history and connect that to work. So this conversation didn’t seem that strange. It seemed like he was concerned that I would not be seen as the actress I had the potential to be, and that he could do for me what he did for Robert Downey Jr. It was about 40 minutes in and he said, “Will you trust me? I cannot continue to work with you unless you trust me.” He said, “I need you to take your clothes off. I need you to do this monologue naked.” I said, “Why would my character need to be naked? She is a lawyer in a courtroom.” He said, “Because I need to see how your body moves. How comfortable you are with your body. This is where I start training you.” I told him I was uncomfortable. But he continued to coax me—saying that this was in no way a come-on. This was part of training. He wanted to make me a good actress. He wanted to make me comfortable. I thought, “Well, my representation sent me to see him. He must be really important.” I took off my sweater. I was so private about my body. I do remember looking down at the script and seeing my bare chest and not being able to focus on anything but the words and my face being so hot and puffy and feeling so ashamed. He commented on my body—said that it was Eastern European. I was just trying to block it all out. He said, “Wow, you need a lot of work.” I put my sweater back on. And he proceeded to tell me how much help I needed . . . that I was really just a mess. As I was telling him, “Guess I better get out of here . . .” he sat down on the bed and said, “No, you have to talk to me.” He started to rub his penis through his pants and asked, ‘Would you f**k me?’” I managed to say, “No. No, I won’t. Are you married? Do you have a wife?” He said, “It’s complicated, but yes. She’s wonderful. She’s a writer. She’s a teacher. And she’s a wonderful woman. And I have a girlfriend who can’t get enough sex. But I love that. I have to come six or seven times a day or else it really doesn’t work for me to get through my day.” I felt trapped. I did not know how to get out and save face and not make a scene. Was I imagining it? He dropped some names [of actresses] that he did some really dark sexual things with. These felt like lies and dark gossip and that he would add my name to the list. I went to leave and he got up and blocked the door. He said, “You have to do this for me. You cannot leave until I have release.” I said, “What do I have to do? I cannot touch you. I cannot have sex with you.” “He said, ‘It’s O.K. I can come in my pants. I have to rub up against your leg. You have to pinch my nipples. And you have to look into my eyes.’” I thought, “Well, if I can get out of here without being raped . . .” He walked me back to the bed. He sat me down. He got on his knees. And he continued to press so hard against my leg. He was greasy and I had to look into those big brown eyes. I tried to look away, but he would hold my face. So I was forced to look into his eyes. And I felt disgust and shame, and like nobody would ever think of me as being clean again after being this close to the devil. His energy was so sinister. After he finished, he told me, “There is a girl who went against me. She was going to talk about something I did. I am going to tell you, and this is a promise, if she ever tells anybody, no matter how much time she thinks went by, I have people who will pull up in a car, kidnap her, and throw her in the Hudson River with cement blocks on her feet. You understand what I’m talking about, right?” He looked at me with those bug eyes that had just raped my leg. And I said, “Yes. I understand.” I left. I was shaking and scared. I told my boyfriend and made him promise not to tell anyone. My career was just starting, and I was frightened. I thought I was going to be kidnapped if I told anybody. When my manager called me back and said, “James Toback wants to see you again,” I said, “That man is vile. And I never want to be in a room with him again. Do not send any girls or women to him.” I didn’t want to speak up because, it sounds crazy but, even until now, I have been scared for my life. But then these brave women spoke out, and he called them liars and said he didn’t recall meeting them . . . that [the] behavior alleged was disgusting and it could not be attributed to him. I just felt rage. Pure rage. Also, where are the people who have been financing his movies? His high-profile friends? This man, unlike Harvey Weinstein, does not have a company that can hold him accountable. Who is coming out and saying, “This is a horrible story and we are looking into this.” Or, “I knew something.” Where was our union? I would like to see Toback admit this happened. None of us are asking for money, for jobs, or for fame. We don’t want to be threatened on social media or called whistleblowers by people who don’t know what it means to be defiled and degraded and made to feel worthless. What I do want, in my dreams, is for someone bigger than me to call him out. I want to light the pyre of public opinion.” Photograph by Jason McDonald.
– Selma Blair and Rachel McAdams have come forward to join more than 200 other women accusing director James Toback of sexual harassment. In a disturbing account to Vanity Fair, Blair says Toback lured her to a hotel room in 1999 and, after she refused to have sex with him, insisted on pleasuring himself by rubbing himself against her leg. She says he then apparently threatened her life, telling her that there had been a girl who went against him, and: "I am going to tell you, and this is a promise, if she ever tells anybody, no matter how much time she thinks went by, I have people who will pull up in a car, kidnap her, and throw her in the Hudson River with cement blocks on her feet. You understand what I'm talking about, right?" Blair says was scared for her life then and still is, but she came forward out of "pure rage" after Toback called other accusers liars. Rachel McAdams tells Vanity Fair that when she was 21, the director told her a visit to his hotel room would be her only chance to discuss her audition for Harvard Man. She says after she arrived, Toback told her he had "masturbated countless times" thinking about her that day and asked to see her pubic hair. "I was very lucky that I left and he didn't actually physically assault me in any way," she says. The Guardian reports that on Wednesday, Julianne Moore tweeted that in the '80s, Toback had approached her "with the same language" he used with other women, asking her to come back to his apartment for an audition.