'Sexual harassment was the norm': Bjork shares tale of abuse by unnamed director

Speaking out: Bjork
Santiago Felipe/Getty Images
Fiona Simpson15 October 2017
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Singer Bjork has spoken out about being sexually harassed by an unnamed director.

The Icelandic star, 51, revealed her experience in a post on Facebook, saying that she wanted to tell her story after being "inspired by the women everywhere who are speaking up online".

She wrote: "Because I come from a country that is one of the world’s place closest to equality between the sexes and at the time I came from position of strength in the music world with hard earned independence, it was extremely clear to me when I walked into the actresses profession that my humiliation and role as a lesser sexually harassed being was the norm and set in stone with the director and a staff of dozens who enabled it and encouraged it.

"I became aware of that it is a universal thing that a director can touch and harass his actresses at will and the institution of film allows it."

Bjork - In pictures

1/18

Bjork said when she turned the director down "he sulked and punished me and created for his team an impressive net of illusion where I was framed as the difficult one".

She said: "Because of my strength, my great team and because I had nothing to lose having no ambitions in the acting world I walked away from it and recovered in a years’ time."

Bjork said she was "the first one that stood up to" the film-maker and that "in my opinion he had a more fair and meaningful relationship with his actresses after my confrontation so there is hope".

She said she hoped her statement "supports the actresses and actors all over".

"Let's stop this," added the singer. "There is a wave of change in the world. Kindness. Bjork."

Additional reporting by Press Association.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT