Coronation Street actress Nicola Thorp has said she was sexually harassed by a male director while working on a documentary about women’s rights.
The TV star, 30, who plays Pat Phelan’s long-lost daughter on the soap says she has been harassed throughout her career.
She told The Mirror: “I’ve had harassment on all parts of the scale, including directly from work colleagues.
We are delighted that actor and campaigner @nicolathorp_ is joining us at #March4Women!
Nicola challenged the law on sexist dress codes for women in the workplace – and won.
Join us on Sunday 3rd March and hear from inspiring activists. Tickets here: https://t.co/yUSvEtiAUg pic.twitter.com/wwbg0vsqa5
— CARE InternationalUK (@careintuk) February 23, 2019
“I was once locked in a bathroom toilet where I worked and I wasn’t allowed out until I kissed the manager. I was only 19, but I laughed it off.
“Then I went home and he was probably none the wiser that he’d done anything wrong, he’d just gotten away with being abusive and coercive.”
She added that when she was 21 she was harassed by a married director, saying: “He was such a creep and luckily he’s not working any more.
“He worked in the theatre world.
“He just started messaging me at all times of the night telling me he had feelings for me, trying to coerce me into telling him that I had a crush on him.
“He started saying quite sordid things to me. He suggested to me that if I didn’t co-operate I would never work again. I told him very clearly I didn’t want to hear from him again. He had a wife and kids.”
Thorp, who previously spoke out about gender inequality in 2016 when she was sent home from a receptionist job at financial services firm PwC for not wearing high heels, said she faced further harassment when working on a documentary about women’s rights.
She told the paper: “A man in the public eye approached me to do a documentary about women’s rights and then, in the process, he told me how much he wanted to have sex with me.
“He then started sending me photos of dresses and shoes he thought I’d look sexy in at three in the morning.
“That really messed me up for a while. It made me think, ‘well, did I encourage him? Was my worth as a potential presenter of a documentary only gauged by how much I flirted with him?’”
Thorp will join stars including Helena Bonham Carter, Sue Perkins and David Tennant at Care International UK’s #March4Women in London on Sunday.
Actors will read testimonies from women in the UK and other parts of the world who have experienced workplace harassment and violence.