On Sunday night, Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins presented fellow filmmaker Brett Ratner with a philanthropic award. Today, in light of sexual harassment allegations against him, Jenkins is speaking out.
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Earlier today the Los Angeles Times reported that six women, including actresses Olivia Munn and Natasha Henstridge, had made claims of sexual assault or harassment against Ratner. Jenkins then took to Twitter and replied to the Los Angeles Times with a statement expressing that she is “extremely distressed” about the allegations against Ratner.
— Patty Jenkins (@PattyJenks) November 1, 2017
In the statement Jenkins wrote that she had personally never witnessed or been aware of what the women have alleged, but also clarified that stood with victims.
“To be very clear, I am definitely not okay with this kind of behavior,” Jenkins wrote. “Sexual harassment and assault are NEVER okay and I stand with and defend all of the men and women who are revealing these horrific encounters all over this industry and this world.”
Jenkins’ statement also referred to her introduction of Ratner at Sunday’s Jewish National Fund dinner in Los Angeles where Ratner was honored with the Tree of Life Award for philanthropic work in Israel. According to Deadline, Jenkins had stepped in to present Ratner with the award after Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot was unable to due to a scheduling conflict. In her introduction, Jenkins recalled how Ratner had paid for the costs of her thesis film in what he called an act of “paying it forward” as Steven Spielberg had done the same for him.
Ratner’s RatPac-Dun Entertainment were co-financers of Jenkins’ Wonder Woman through a financial deal with Warner Bros.
Ratner is the latest Hollywood figure to be accused of sexual misconduct. Earlier this week Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp came forward with allegations that Kevin Spacey had made sexual advances to him while he was a teen and earlier this month, numerous actresses — including Gwyneth Paltrow, Lupita Nyong’o, and Cara Delevinge among others — came forward with allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein leading to his ouster from The Weinstein Company.
