A Supreme Scandal Swept Under the Oscar's Red Carpet
- Paige B.
- Feb 17
- 5 min read
Last Friday, I went to see Dracula, a film I’d been looking forward to for months due to Caleb Landry Jones. The next day, after posting my review online, someone commented something to my surprise: “Doesn’t the director have SA allegations?” To which I replied, “Yes, he does,” after confirming that deeply troubling fact. Which prompted someone else to comment, “Is he in the film? No, he’s the writer and director. Watch it because you want to. His other film, Dogman, won awards. See Dracula for what it is, a love story.” And to be fair, I’d already written this blog before that happened, but I think it’s the perfect introduction to this piece. Is Luc Besson in the movie? No. Has he won awards? Yes. But he does also have several sexual assault and rape allegations against him, yes. Does that matter? It absolutely should, and unfortunately for many, it does not.
The Oscars, for one, certainly don’t care that your favorite director may be a predator, or complicit in the on-set acts of one- in fact, some say it even increases their chances of taking home the gold. While people, women specifically, have spoken up for years about the inequality between men and women in the entertainment industry beyond just the scope of sexual misconduct, their voices continue to fall on seemingly deaf ears. Misogyny in Hollywood is not new by any metric; it’s just hopped on the Ozempic train and thinned out in terms of how much people pay attention to it.
What was your favorite part of the Marty Supreme press campaign? The Gen-Z marketing approach, the limited-edition track suits, the ping-pong balls at the AMC, or finding out the real reason the Safdie brothers split via an article in Page Six about their involvement in a sexual harassment case that occurred on the set of their 2017 indie hit, Good Time?
The Safdie brothers have been praised for their raw realism, very fast-paced, intense storylines, played out by a mix of non-actors and A-listers like Chalamet, Sandler, and Pattinson. However, that same “verité style” approach to filmmaking, as Page Six calls it, is what led to a 17-year-old girl being cast over Instagram DMs and eventually sexually harassed on their set.
“The Safdies were known for using a mix of professional stars like the film’s lead...as well as non-actors like Duress, who had just been released from prison. (Duress, real name Michael Stathis, had been jailed numerous times dating back to 2009 on drug charges, weapons violations, fencing stolen property, and motor vehicle theft, according to court records.)” According to this article and a 2023 Variety article, the 17-year-old girl was hired by producer Sebastian Bear-McClard, Emily Ratajkowski’s ex-husband.
The Variety article goes on to disclose several other instances in which Bear-McClard was inappropriate on-set, beyond Good Time, including another incident on the set of Uncut Gems years later. “Multiple sources tell Variety that Bear-McClard’s contact with the 15-year-old as well as his romantic involvement with yet another young woman on the “Uncut Gems” set — an assistant who has film industry ties — led to the Safdies firing him” (Variety, 2023). What alarms me beyond a predatory producer hiring a 17-year-old online to perform a sex scene with no safety precautions or representation, messaging a 15-year-old girl who visited the set, and allegedly grooming another young woman, is the dismissal from the Safdie brothers when asked to comment on this.
The Oscars, and various other award shows, have a history of celebrating known predators as well as their enablers and accomplices, all while silencing the victims who speak out against them. Roman Polanski won Best Director in 2002 for The Pianist—despite being a fugitive from justice. He fled the United States in 1978 after pleading guilty to the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl, whom he drugged and assaulted. The Academy gave him a standing ovation. Harvey Weinstein amassed more thank you’s than God at one point, personally winning one Oscar for Shakespeare in Love in 1998. He was also associated with over 300 nominations and 81 Oscar wins, all while being a known predator within the industry. He was expelled from the Academy in 2017, when allegations against him first surfaced, kickstarting the #MeToo movement. Woody Allen, Kevin Spacey, Casey Affleck, and Bryan Singer are among the group of men who have both been nominated or won an Oscar while also having sexual assault allegations.
Anne Henry, an advocate for child actors, tells Page Six, “It seems Academy members have a very short memory when it comes to the on-set behavior of their ‘best directors... I would have hoped Oscar-nominated directors would be judged for their methods and professionalism as well. This is 2026. We shouldn’t be in a ‘create entertainment at all costs’ environment.” Hollywood doesn’t just ignore predators—it protects them, as long as the money keeps flowing. The public follows suit: if the director’s a predator but the movie entertains, who cares? Can’t you just separate the art from the artist’s allegations? How can you when the art itself involves sexual misconduct?
Luc Besson may not be in Dracula, but he does have multiple sexual assult allegations against him, which is cause for concern. The Safdie Brothers may have split after this blow to their career, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that their complacency in sexual misconduct by one of their producers on one of their sets. The apathetic response to sexual assault, harassment, and abuse is jarring. Given how both the public and justice system fail victims, it’s no wonder.
When sexual assault and harassment are made a mockery of in the media, the people at home watching lose the ability to discern what is real and what’s not. That is why it continues to happen in schools, workplaces, entertainment, politics, and the home. Sexual assault is not just a scene from Law and Order: SVU or Game of Thrones; a lot of the time, it is coercion or revoked consent. I have a problem with how the media portrays these scenes, but that’s not my focus here. The real issue is that sexual assault and harassment are dismissed, trivialized, and ignored—by Hollywood and by society. That indifference allows predators to thrive, victims to be silenced, and cycles of abuse to continue unchecked.
With countless allegations buried in Hollywood, it’s a wonder anyone can walk the red carpet without tripping over the truth. I’m curious to see how the Safdie brother’s make out in the careers and how long this separation will last before they actually comment on it for themselves. I find it interesting how the court of public opinion demand answers from accusers, but rarely the accused.
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