Dreamgirls’ actress Anika Noni Rose shared an emotional account of her allegedly being assaulted on a plane while she was sleeping just last year.
Rose, who spoke out about her #MeToo story on SiriusXM’s Make It Plain show Thursday, was choked up at times while recalling the incident to host Mark Thompson.
The 45-year-old actress, who won a Tony Award for her performance in Caroline, or Change, said ‘I have never spoken of this, but I will say this out loud now: I was assaulted on a plane last year. And I haven’t been able to get this person’s name; they won’t give me the name of the person.’
Rose said she looked like a sleeping kid in school, dressed down and donning a skull cap when the incident happened in 2017.
Actress Anika Noni Rose alleges she was sexually assault while sleeping on a plane in 2017
The Dreamgirls star (left, next to Jennifer Hudson and Beyonce) said the crews diverted the flight to kick the man off the plane after things escalated
‘I don’t know this person. He didn’t introduce himself. There was no, ‘Hi, how are you doing?’ And I was asleep before the plane even took off; I’m one of those sleepers,’ she said during the pre-taped interview. ‘That engine started and I’m like a baby in car. I’m out. He ruined it. Ruined it.’
She said, at first, when she alerted the airline’s crew, they offered to turn he plane around- but she declined- not wanting to disrupt anyone’s journey and thinking the incident was over. However, the man, whose identity has been kept from her despite filing a report with the FBI about the incident, continued with inappropriate behavior.
She said at first, ‘It seemed like the person was then going to go to sleep. I felt like, ”Maybe he’s chilling.” I told the steward and stewardess, ”I just want you to keep an eye on this person. I just want you to know that this is happening.” And then he said some things that were so out of the box, that I was like, ”Let’s stop the plane.”
At first she was frightened, but she recalls things quickly changed, ‘I was shaking. I was so upset and so hurt and angry. Like, angry,’ she said.
‘I wanted to punch that man, and I knew that that would take away from the story that I had to tell. I had to hold in everything that I was feeling to be able to tell this story and be heard and taken seriously from the place I was in. It’s been…interesting.’
The plane landed, and the man was removed.
However, she says, her frustration over the situation has lingered, as the man who allegedly attacked her still, as of yet, has not been brought to justice over the incident, which ended in him being removed from the aircraft and the flight diverted to do so.
‘There’s a Freedom of Information act. You’re supposed to be able to get people’s names. I made a report right then with the FBI and they dropped it. They dropped the case,’ she said.
Stunning: The actress said she was not dressed up and actually looked like a kid on the flight when the alleged attack happened
Rose said she filed a report with the FBI but that charges against the man were dropped, and, she says she has not bee able to get his identity
She adds, she doesn’t know why the case was not pursued.
‘I really don’t know. I really don’t know.’ Rose added the airline is ‘not allowed to tell me the name of the passenger, apparently.’
She has a photo of him, and hopes he will still be brought to justice, but she has been careful with her own handling of the situation in hopes of still bringing him to justice for his alleged assault.
‘I made my report. I followed up with the police, like I was told to do. The police did nothing.’
‘I don’t really know how you deal with that. It was such a sly violence—such a sly violation,’ she added, saying, ‘It’s a really tough thing to deal with when something happens to you, and you do everything you’re supposed to do, and somebody somewhere else decides: ‘Well, we’re not going to go forward with this. We’re not going to look into this any further.’ You’re walking around in circles asking for information that is owed you. The amount of care that is taken to protect perpetrators is vastly heavier and stronger than the amount of care that is taken to protect victims.’
Rose vows the fight is not yet over for justice in her alleged incident, adding ‘I’m not finished. I’m not finished.’
‘I was a woman asleep on a plane. I wasn’t dressed up. I wasn’t fancy. I actually looked like I was probably in school, and somebody felt free to touch me in that moment,’ she said.
‘You don’t have to be in Hollywood. You don’t have to be dressed up. You don’t have to be a siren. I was on a plane, in a skullcap, looking like a kid, basically, and this person felt free to touch me. It is mind-blowing.’