Julianna Margulies screams her way out of encounter with Steven Seagal at 23-years-old. Has another encounter with Harvey Weinstein well into her established career.

Julianna Margulies, known best for her role as Carol Hathaway on NBC’s long-running medical drama ER, was on the SiriusXM show with Jenny Hunt to discuss her work in helping Erin Merryn pass Erin’s law when she recalled the horrific experience she had with Steven Seagal and Harvey Weinstein.

“And, what I’ve realized, and what all of this has brought up, is that I swept everything under the rug…you shrug it off like, well that was just you know, ‘That’s Hollywood!’ But, I mean when I was 23 a casting director, a woman, said, ‘…Steven Seagal wants to go over the scene with you in his hotel room at 10 o’clock at night,’” recalled Margulies during the interview.

It was 10:40 p.m. when 23-year-old Margulies showed up to Seagal’s hotel room. The female casting director who assured she would be there was nowhere to be found. Instead he was there. Alone. Margulies had been set up.

“And, I don’t know how I got out of that hotel room. It always starts with, ‘I’m a healer, I want to massage you,’ and all. I sorta screamed my way out…,” Margulies continues.

When Hunt had asked Margulies why she thought it had taken people so long to come forth regarding Harvey Weinstein, Margulies replied that it came down to one thing: fear. The second is the “questionable faults” the victims of sexual abuse go through like people being more concerned with what garments one was wearing rather than what happened, which she says “should never be a question.”

“And because of my experience with Steven Seagal in that room, which was horrific, I refused to meet Harvey Weinstein in his hotel room when another woman brought me…,” on her encounter with Weinstein. She continues:

“What’s interesting is, I remember distinctly, and I was already on ER, and I already had a career. So even though this movie was a huge movie and I was getting, this is an Oscar kind of movie, and it’s between you and one other girl and ‘Harvey just wants to meet you.’ And she said, ‘I’m gonna drop you off at The Peninsula.’ And I said, ‘I’m not going up there alone.’ Because I had already had the Steven Seagal experience…. And she, I saw…she started to sweat. She was like, ‘Don’t be silly, I’m just going to drop you off, it’s gonna be fine.’ And I said, ‘Nope, then I’m going home.’ So she came with me, up to the room. And just like Ashley Judd said in The New York Times piece, she was very nervous. She knocked on the door, and she was standing behind me. And he opened the door, in a bathrobe. I could see that there were candles lit in the room, and there was a dinner for two. And I saw him stare at her—daggers. And so, I turned to see what she had done to deserve that, and I caught her in a shrug, like, ‘what could I do?’ And he looked at me, furious, and he took the door and he said, ‘Just wanted to say good audition.’ And he slammed the door. And of course I didn’t get the part….”

All the more reasons for Marguiles to continue her support for Merryn in the success of passing the Erin’s law bill. The bill requires public schools to teach children, school personnel and parents alike to recognize the signs of sexual abuse, and where to seek help. Essentially, the implementation of a prevention-oriented child sexual abuse programs in schools.

“But, the point is that for years, years, we all just shrug it off. It’s not to be shrugged off, and we have to start with our children. We have to protect them, and give them every tool in the shed to know that they can say no.”

Listen to the full interview with these three audio clips: one, two, and three. SiriusXM’s Just Jenny airs Monday-Friday 8:00 -10:00 am ET on STARS channel 109.

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