Joel Kramer Considers Suing Eliza Dushku Over Molestation Claims; James Cameron Supports Actress
Well-known Hollywood stunt coordinator Joel Kramer recently said he was considering filing a case against actress Eliza Dushku following her claims that he had molested her on the set of "True Lies."
Dushku had been 12 years old at the time while Kramer was 36.
In a response to Dushku's claims, Kramer released a statement to Deadline and dismissed the actress' story as "outlandish, manipulated lies." The Hollywood stunt coordinator strongly denied her claims and said that it was made him "sick to [his] stomach." He then accused her of thinking it all up "in her imagination," reiterating that they were "lies."
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Kramer insisted that he had treated Dushku "like a daughter" and that everyone on the set of "True Lies" "looked out for her" at the time of the filming where she portrayed the role of Dana Tasker, the teenage daughter of main protagonists Harry (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis) Tasker.
The stunt coordinator then rhetorically asked how he was going to fight Dushku's accusations. He said: "I guess I'll have to get a lawyer and file a lawsuit against her for defamation and slander."
Dushku had publicly accused Kramer of sexual molestation through a post on her official Facebook account. In it, she claimed that Kramer had been "grooming" her for months and had worked on gaining the trust of her parents as well.
One day, as Dushku narrated, Kramer asked her parents if he could bring her to a stunt crew's hotel pool and later "lured" her to his Miami hotel room. The actress continued: "I remember vividly how he methodically drew the shades and turned down the lights; how he cranked up the air-conditioning to what felt like freezing levels ... how he laid me down on the bed, wrapped me with his gigantic writhing body, and rubbed all over me."
The actress also claimed that she had gotten "injured from a stunt-gone-wrong" shortly after a friend of hers, to who she told what Kramer allegedly did to her, came on set to confront the stunt coordinator.
Meanwhile, the director of the 1994 action film, James Cameron, has also spoken up to support Dushku and other victims of sexual harassment in the film industry.
Cameron said that what happened to Dushku was "heartbreaking" and emphasized the need "to create a safe avenue for people to speak up."
He also explained that the nature of the work makes directors like him "historically pretty oblivious" to the things related to the relationships of other crew and cast members because they were "focused on what [they are] doing creatively."
Cameron added: "But had I known about it, there would've been no mercy. Now, especially that I have daughters, there's really no mercy."
