Actor Matthew Lawrence says he was fired from his agency after refusing to pose naked for a successful film director

At the age of 14, Matthew Lawrence became the middle child of Robin Williams in the hit family comedy

At the age of 17, he joined the cast of the adolescent series

, playing the older brother of one of the main characters.

After the brief success achieved in the nineties, especially among young audiences, the name of Matthew Lawrence (Pennsylvania, United States, 43 years old) barely appears in a series of minor titles and his once promising career seems to have failed. managed to take off

In a recent episode of his

, titled

, and which he presents together with his brothers Joey Lawrence, 47, and Andrew Lawrence, 35, the actor has revealed a possible cause for his absence in big titles: an experience of sexual harassment, in which his talent agency fired after refusing to take off her clothes for a prominent film director, whom she does not reveal the name of.

“There have been many times in my life where I have been approached for a major role,” Lawrence explained to his brothers and podcast co-

.

“I lost my management agency because I went to a hotel room, which I can't believe they sent me to, of a very prominent Oscar-winning director who appeared in a robe, asked me to take off my clothes and said that I needed to get some Polaroids”, the actor acknowledged.

"And then he told me that if he did X, Y and Z, he would be the next Marvel character."

The actor has explained that he refused to do what the director asked him: "So my agency fired me for leaving that room."

More information

#MeToo: famous men who have also confessed to being victims of abuse

The actor has explained in the

that "a lot" of his friends, all male, have shared the same or similar experiences, and, although he considers #MeToo a positive movement, he also believes that there is a "double standard". in the way people treat male victims compared to female ones.

“In my opinion, not too many men have come out to talk about this problem in the industry,” Lawrence said.

“I know, of course, this is probably about a third of what women go through, but men go through this too… I think our society is less prepared to hear that this situation also happens with men, as it does with women. ”.

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On October 15, 2017, actress Alyssa Milano posted a tweet at 10:21 p.m.: “If you have been sexually harassed or assaulted, write Me Too as a reply to this tweet.”

That was the wick that lit a feminist fire that in the last five years has caused a change in the social perception of machismo in society, leaving the upper echelons of Hollywood and reaching all levels of society.

There have been many actresses who have joined, since that October 2017, the movement, whose greatest exponent was the figure of the film producer Harvey Weinstein, on whom more than 80 complaints of inappropriate behavior weighed.

But a series of actors also joined the movement.

The recent winner of an Oscar for

, Brendan Fraser, revealed in 2018 an incident of sexual harassment that kept him away from the industry that had exalted him in his youth.

Everything happened at the Beverly Hills Hotel, after a lunch organized by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), which every year organizes the delivery of the Golden Globes. After the meal, the actor was leaving the accommodation when he He ran into Philip Berk, the president of said association who, in front of a large group of people, shook his hand and took the opportunity to pinch him on the behind.

Fraser could not forget it and his anguish ended up leading to a depression.

"He made me go back, he made me withdraw," he confessed about his disappearance from the cinema in 2003.

Actors such as the former child star Corey Feldman told on television that he and his best friend Corey Haim (also a child star and who died in 2010 after a life marked by drug addiction) were victims of abuse when they were minors, during the decade of the eighty.

The digital outlet

sparked debate about child abuse in the industry with an article titled:

.

Here would also enter the confession of James Van Der Beek, known for having given life to Dawson in

who tweeted: "I've lived through older powerful men grabbing my ass and cornering me in inappropriate sexual conversations when I was much younger."

The actor Terry Crews, known for participating in the comedy

, or Javier Muñoz, one of the stars of the musical comedy

, have been some of the male voices that have become representatives of the movement.