Eliza Dushku Breaks Her Silence On Being Harassed By Former 'NCIS' Star Micheal Weatherly

Source: Indie Wire

After receiving a $9.5 million settlement from CBS, Eliza Dushku has opened up about her time working on the show Bull, where she claims star Michael Weatherly repeatedly harassed her and then producers fired her when she complained. Earlier this week, Dushku wrote a piece for The Boston Globe and gave details about her Bull experience and what happened afterward.

“The narrative propagated by CBS, actor Michael Weatherly, and writer-producer Glenn Gordon Caron is deceptive and in no way fits with how they treated me on the set of the television show Bull and retaliated against me for simply asking to do my job without relentless sexual harassment,” the Bring It On alum wrote. “This is not a ‘he-said/she-said’ case. Weatherly’s behavior was captured on CBS’s own videotape recordings.”

Why are people horrible to Eliza Dushku? This new story reminded me of what Tru Calling was like for her. pic.twitter.com/C0HDwV0Q8g

— PrometheusRisesAgain (@prometheus50K) December 14, 2018

Dushku went on to explain that she did not comment in the New York Times piece that broke the news of her settlement because she wanted to “honor the terms” of the agreement, but the story shocked her because of the “deflection, denial, and spin.”

In 2017, Dushku signed on for a three-episode arc on Bull’s first season, and there were plans to make her a full-time cast member. But Dushku says that just days after she complained about Weatherly making her uncomfortable, she was written out of the show.

In the Boston Globe piece, the actress explained that the 50-year-old Weatherly claimed that she didn’t understand his alleged lewd jokes because she didn’t have the right sense of humor. Dushku wrote that this is how a perpetrator rationalizes when he is caught, and she doesn’t want to hear that she has a “humor deficit” or can’t take a joke.

“I did not overreact. I took a job and, because I did not want to be harassed, I was fired,” wrote Dushku.

The 37-year-old actress says that Weatherly harassed her multiple times, which included offers of taking her to his “rape van, filled with all sorts of lubricants and long phallic things.” He also allegedly bragged about his friendship with former CBS CEO Les Moonves, who was recently fired due to sexual misconduct allegations. Dushku says she now realizes that Weatherly “wielded this special friendship as an amulet,” but it was actually a threat.

Dushku says she asked him to "be my ally" in changing the atmosphere. "Weatherly responded…'Eliza no one respects women more than I do,' citing his many sisters & his professed history of being 'too respectful of women.'"He then asked she be written off https://t.co/jAAbW0qH7M

— Refinery29 (@Refinery29) December 19, 2018

Dushku says that Weatherly never apologized, but instead bullied her one more time at her wrap party, where he went out of his way to humiliate her by toasting her and calling her a “truly beautiful woman.”

The actress says that Caron fired her within 48 hours of her complaints, and the action “baffled” CBS.

Despite Eliza Dushku’s claims, there are people in the industry who are defending Michael Weatherly, including his former NCIS co-star Pauley Perrette, and Rizzoli & Isles actress Sasha Alexander, who also appeared on NCIS.