True Lies stuntman dropped by agent after Eliza Dushku accuses him of molesting her as a 12-year-old
Famed stuntman Joel Kramer has been dropped by his agency, Worldwide Production Agency, after Eliza Dushku accused him of molesting her on the set of 1994’s True Lies, when she was 12 and he was 36.
“WPA has elected to part ways with Joel Kramer based on the allegations of misconduct now being reported. Such behaviour is unacceptable and entirely at odds with the standards of conduct we demand of ourselves, and expect from our clients,” the agency’s president and general counsel Richard Caleel told Deadline in a statement.
Dushku, best known for her role as Faith on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, made the allegation on Facebook, in which she wrote: “I have struggled with how and when to disclose this, if ever. At the time, I shared what happened to me with my parents, two adult friends and one of my older brothers. No one seemed ready to confront this taboo subject then, nor was I.”
The actress accused Kramer of prolonged “grooming”, before saying he sexually assaulted her in a Miami hotel room, “with a promise to my parent that he would take me for a swim at the stunt crew’s hotel pool and for my sushi meal thereafter.”
Dushku wrote that she confided in an adult female friend who then came to the set to confront Kramer; she added, “later that very same day, I was injured from a stunt-gone-wrong on the Harrier jet... it was Joel Kramer who was responsible for my safety.”
She also said that Kramer would call her “Jailbait” in front of others. “Sure, I’ve come to understand the terrible power dynamics that play into whistle-blowing by ‘subordinates’ against persons in power, how difficult it can be for someone to speak up. But I was a child,” she wrote.
“Over the years I’ve really struggled as I’ve wondered how my life might have been different if someone, anyone grown-up who witnessed his sick ways, had spoken up before he lured me to that hotel room.”
Kramer denied the allegations on the phone to Vanity Fair, calling them “atrocious lies”. He stated that he and others from the True Lies crew had taken Dushku swimming and for sushi, but denied he lured her to his room, molested her, or called her “Jailbait”.
He also said he did not remember Dushku having been injured on set, but said she could have bruised herself. “I would not want anyone to get hurt on my set, especially a minor,” Kramer added.
