James Van Der Beek has made it clear those responsible for his sexual harassment nightmare as a young actor are not people in the public eye.
The former Dawson's Creek star opened up about being victimised during his early days in Hollywood in a series of Twitter posts early on Thursday (12Oct17), as he weighed in on the sex scandal surrounding Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, who stands accused of abusing his power to act inappropriately with numerous women for over three decades.
"I've had my a** grabbed by older, powerful men, I've had them corner me in inappropriate sexual conversations when I was much younger," he wrote. "I understand the unwarranted shame, powerlessness & inability to blow the whistle. There's a power dynamic that feels impossible to overcome."
James did not name and shame the men who harassed him during his youth, leaving fans to wonder about who he may have been referring to, but he has since returned to Twitter to explain his perpetrators were not celebrities.
"FTR (for the record), the harassment I tweeted about was by people 99.9% of you don't know," he writes. "2 were charged (by others) & punished. The other has since died."
The actor, now 40, goes on to urge his followers not to openly speculate about who his attackers were, in case they guess wrongly.
"So apologies to any mentors & champions and wonderful friends I've made in this industry who may have been pulled into wrongful speculation," he continues. "I realize I left a door open by not initially naming, but please don't impugn innocent people w/out (without) cause. That's not fair. Or right."
James wasn't the first male star to admit to being sexually harassed by another man in the entertainment industry - on Tuesday (10Oct17), American footballer-turned-actor Terry Crews also recounted one rude incident last year (16) when he had his genitals groped by a male executive.
