Amber Tamblyn Speaks Out on Hollywood's History of Harassment After James Woods' Tweets

Former Joan of Arcadia star details incident that happened in her early 20s when a producer didn't believe she was being harassed

By Meg Swertlow Sep 16, 2017 11:26 PMTags

Amber Tamblyn is not holding back—not any more that is.

The fiery star penned an impassioned op-ed piece in the New York Times earlier today and put both James Woods and Hollywood on blast for calling women who speak out about harassment "liars."

The article, entitled "I’m Done With Not Being Believed," details an alleged encounter from her teen years when she says that the former Shark star hit on her and her friends at a diner, as well as time when the former Joan of Arcadia star was 21 years old and she went to a producer to explain she was being harassed by a crew member. Amber writes that after she told the producer what was going on the producer said, "Well there are two sides to every story."

Amber went on to write, "For women in America who come forward with stories of harassment, abuse and sexual assault, there are not two sides to every story, however noble that principle might seem. Women do not get to have a side. They get to have an interrogation."

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The actress/director, who is also a wife and mother, continued to call out the Ray Donovan actor for referring to her words as a "lie."

She wrote, "Mr. Woods's accusation that I was lying sent me back to that day in that producer's office, and back to all the days I've spent in the offices of men; of feeling unsure, uneasy, questioned and disbelieved, no matter the conversation."


The 34-year-old went on, "I have been afraid of speaking out or asking things of men in positions of power for years. What I have experienced as an actress working in a business whose business is to objectify women is frightening. It is the deep end of a pool where I cannot swim. It is a famous man telling you that you are a liar for what you have remembered. For what you must have misremembered, unless you have proof."

Earlier this week Amber got into a Twitter argument with the outspoken actor after he took to Twitter to himself criticize the upcoming movie Call Me By Your Name, which stars Armie Hammer as a 24-year-old professor who falls in love with his 17-year-old male student, played by Timothée Chalamet.

After seeing the negative tweet, Armie replied, "Didn't you date a 19 year old when you were 60.......?"

In response to Armie's tweet, Amber decided to add info and replied, "James Woods tried to pick me and my friend up at a restaurant once. He wanted to take us to Vegas. 'I'm 16' I said. 'Even better' he said."

James responded by saying, "The first is illegal. The second is a lie."

The Paint It Black director followed up her first tweet with a screenshot of a text conversation which shows her asking her friend Billy, "Do you remember when James Woods and his friend tried to pick us up at Mel's Diner when we were teens?"

The text shows her friend's response: "Damn totally forgot about that hahahah."

Along with the screenshot, Amber tweeted, "Since I know people love to question the integrity and honesty of women when they come forward with stories like this, here you go."

The actress then penned an open letter to the actor, in which she talked about her experience.

"Here's the thing, Mr. Woods. At that time I was not a public persona. I had done a couple years on a soap opera as an actress, but you wouldn't know me from Adam. I'm sure you've racked your brain trying to remember how you could've possibly hit on the actress Amber Tamblyn at a diner almost two decades ago," she wrote on Wednesday. "You think, it's not possible, there's no way I would've been so stupid as to hit on a 16-year-old known actress. But I wasn't known then, James. I was just a girl. And I'm going to wager that there have been many girls who were just girls or women who were just women who you've done this to because you can get away with it."