Two actresses told ITV viewers today how the late British film director Michael Winner allegedly demanded to see their naked breasts.
Soap actresses Debbie Arnold, 62, and Cindy Marshall-Day, 50, and a third unnamed woman have spoken out about their alleged ordeals in auditions with Winner.
Arnold from EastEnders and Marshall-Day of Crossroads say they decided to come forward after rape allegations made against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Soap actresses Debbie Arnold (left) and Cindy Marshall-Day (right) and a third unnamed woman have spoken out about their alleged ordeals at the hands of Winner
Arnold from EastEnders and Marshall-Day from Crossroads say they decided to come forward after allegations made against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein
Arnold told This Morning’s Amanda Holden and Ben Shepherd that in her early 20s she was invited to Winner’s house for an audition, which was normal for the time.
She was then taken to an office to meet him, before he allegedly told her: ‘Right, I’d like you to go over by the window, I’d like to see you in the light. Now I’d like you to take off your top, and then take off your bra, and massage your breasts.’
She added that he asked her three times, before she was ‘very rude’ to him and left – as he claimed he would report her to her agent and actors’ union Equity.
But Winner is said to have later insisted he had played a trick on Arnold to see how she would react, and that she had coped with it brilliantly.
Marshall-Day added: ‘It was just shocking what the man did to young actresses – and it was a modus operandi. He asked me to take my top off.’
Arnold and Marshall-Day joined former police officer Mark Williams-Thomas on the programme to talk about taking historic allegations seriously.
Mr Williams-Thomas said: ‘Weinstein has shown the world that even the people that are the most powerful can be held to account.
‘People are now saying this is an industry problem – and people who are incredibly powerful have been able to get away with it.’
Speaking last week, Arnold said she was invited to Winner’s home in the early 1980s after he got in touch with her mother Mary, who was her theatrical agent.
Winner is said to have later insisted he had played a trick on Arnold to see how she would react
Although she was not trying out for a specific role, she hoped the meeting with the powerful film director in London would help kick-start her acting career.
She went up to the first floor of his mansion in Holland Park where she was asked to stand by a large window so he could supposedly see her in a better light.
She told the Sunday People: ‘He asked me to take off my top, then my bra and told me to massage my breasts. I asked him to repeat the question because I thought I was hearing things.
‘I started walking away from the window and he asked me why. I told him I couldn’t believe what he had said. I thought it was a joke so I was appalled when he repeated the question. I walked right up to him and told him, ‘f*** off, you dirty old pervert’.
She said she felt too scared to go police as she feared it would wreck her career, but added: ‘It doesn’t matter that he is dead, he still needs to be exposed.’
When asked about the allegations last week, Winner’s wife Geraldine, who married him two years before his death, said: ‘I feel any story you print would be untrue.’