From what I can see, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of men within the acting community who have their own awful Me Too stories. The handful of men who have spoken out – Anthony Rapp and Brendan Fraser among them – have been embraced by the women of Me Too. I am not sure why more men haven’t spoken up, but I suspect it’s because many of them haven’t even processed the fact that they were being sexually harassed or abused. Speaking of, the child actor-turned-adult actor Matthew Lawrence recently spoke out about something which happened to him – he was fired from his agency because he walked out of a hotel room with a producer who wanted to get him naked.

Actor Matthew Lawrence opened the April 28 episode of his Brotherly Love podcast on a serious note, reflecting on the #MeToo movement and his own experience with sexual harassment in Hollywood. On the show, co-hosted by his brothers, fellow actors Joey and Andrew Lawrence, the 43-year-old actor recounts his experience refusing to engage with a director involved with a Marvel project, who asked Lawrence to take his clothes off during a meeting.

“There’s been many times in my life where I’ve been propositioned to get a huge role,” Lawrence says on the podcast. “I lost my agency because I went to the hotel room” where, the actor alleges, a prominent director “showed up in his robe, asked me to take my clothes off, said he needed to take Polaroids of me and said if I did X, Y and Z, I would be the next Marvel character.”

Lawrence alleges that his agency (which he did not identify by name) ended up firing him because he left the hotel room. A representative for the actor was not immediately available for comment.

Lawrence began working as a child actor at the age of four. Notable credits include playing the son of Robin Williams’ character in the 1993 smash “Mrs. Doubtfire,” the long-lost Jack Hunter in the ABC sitcom “Boy Meets World” and a lead role on the family comedy “Brotherly Love,” which aired from 1995 to 1997 on the WB Network and also featured his siblings, Joey Lawrence and Andrew Lawrence.

Matthew Lawrence shared his difficult experience during a larger conversation between the brothers about the #MeToo movement, which he calls “a very good thing.” However, he argues that men have not received the same support as women when it comes to sharing their experiences with sexual harassment and abuse in the entertainment industry.

“Not a lot of guys in my opinion have come out and talked about this in the industry,” Lawrence said. “Now granted, it’s probably about a third of what women go through. Men go through this as well… I think our society is less ready to hear that situation is going on with men than they are with women.”

[From Variety]

We hear less about the men because, as I said, there are fewer men telling their stories. The men who have told their stories have been supported – Brendan Fraser won an Oscar, although his boycott of the Golden Globes was largely ignored within the industry. Anyway, it’s completely asinine that Matthew’s agency fired him over the fact that he walked out of a hotel room where he was being propositioned/harassed. As for the director… people are saying it’s Bryan Singer, but if it was Singer, wouldn’t Matthew just name him? I feel like it could be someone else, someone who still works in the Marvel world.

matthew lawrence talking about how his agency sent him to the hotel of oscar winning director and that person asked him to take his clothes off for nude pics and that if he did things he would be the next marvel character, when matthew said no the agency fired HIM pic.twitter.com/mLAbk20FhS

— myo ✧ star wars era (@myonnaslibrary) April 29, 2023

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.