Reacher star Alan Ritchson claimed that he was sexually assaulted while he worked in the modeling industry.
The 41-year-old actor said the incident happened while he was ‘one of the highest paid models at the agency’ and sent on a gig with a ‘very famous photographer’ in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
‘I was sent into a hotel room to do nudes with the promise that if I did the shoot, he would offer me a very lucrative campaign for a magazine and a clothing line,’ he explained. ‘I was sexually assaulted by this guy.’
Ritchson did not name the photographer.
‘Let’s be honest, it’s like legalized sex trafficking,’ he said of modeling. ‘The industry is not regulated, and it’s a widely known secret that if you’re hired on a job, you’re basically being passed off to a photographer to be trafficked.’
Reacher star Alan Ritchson claimed that he was sexually assaulted while he worked in the modeling industry; pictured in 2022
The 41-year-old actor said the incident happened while he was ‘one of the highest paid models at the agency’ in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter; pictured in Prime’s Reacher
The North Dakota native went on to say that he immediately left the photo shoot where he was sexually assaulted, drove to his agency’s office, and told them to never call him again.
‘I quit the industry and it was the last photo shoot I’ve ever had. Those pictures were never seen or published,’ he claimed. ‘That was it. I swore it off and thank God acting found me at the exact same time so I was able to make a switch to a new career, but it left some scars.’
Ritchson expressed that there were numerous occasions when he found himself in distressing situations where sexual abuse seemed to be the objective, and the paycheck he desperately needed to survive served as the incentive.
He remarked that such occurrences were alarmingly frequent.
‘You’re always dancing around this very terrible line of, “How do I keep the job and not completely offend this photographer or this agent or whoever set this thing up, and how do I not get raped?”‘
Ritchson said he deeply empathizes with women who face power struggles and predatory behavior in the workplace.
‘If I really had to, I could get myself out of whatever room I was in through a physical altercation. Most women don’t have that option. Imagine how terrifying it must be.’
Ritchson did mention that his modeling work for the department store JCPenney was a different experience.
‘Nobody was trying to get you naked and oiled up in the back of a hotel room so they could sexually assault you or threaten you that if you didn’t do it, you wouldn’t get a campaign.’