Director Cary Fukunaga accused of abuse of power on set

“You need someone to stop you“, affirm the sources who have witnessed, supposedly, inappropriate behavior by Cary Fukunaga on set towards young female cast and crew of his latest productions.

The first red alert occurred after the filming of a scene from ‘Masters of the Air‘, the series on World War II that the filmmaker is directing for Apple Tv+ and is produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.

According to two sources from the production team, Fukunaga remained on set while most of the crew and actors left. The director of ‘No time to die’ He focused his attention on two young women, one of whom had just turned 18, characterized as prostitutes from the 1940s. Fukunaga began taking photos of them and enticed them to pose suggestively, leaning against the wall and kneeling on the floor.

One of the sources states that Fukunaga excused himself on the pretext of needing the photos for the match (continuity), a task that usually falls to the wardrobe department. For the two people who relate what happened, Fukunaga crossed the line that separates the professional from the personal and used his position of power within the production to make those present uncomfortable.

In a statement from his lawyer to the magazine rolling stoneFukunaga argues that “takes photos of actors, men and women, young and old, on their sets all the time” and, acknowledging that he took photos of these actresses, he says that “the insinuation of something improper in doing so is false and defamatory”.

But the magazine has collected nearly a dozen similar cases since the 44-year-old director was accused of misconduct earlier this month by three women: Rachelle Vinberg, who met Fukunaga on the set of an advertisement, and the sisters Cailin and Hannah Loesch, who met him on a television set.

Various sources who have worked alongside the director on films, television series and commercials describe him as always looking for an opportunity to meet younger women. A member of the team of one of these productions affirms that Fukunaga’s persistence played with the limit of workplace harassment, and feared for her future in the profession when she tried to turn him down and he didn’t take the hint. Another source alleges that Fukunaga asked him out in a job interview. The filmmaker, once again, denies all these accusations.

Rachelle Vinberg claimed earlier this month in a lengthy Instagram story that was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder due to her relationship with Fukunagawhom he met on a film set the day after you turn 18. “I’ve been afraid of him for years,” she said.

“I remember feeling so good about being away from him, like this heavy weight was lifted off my shoulder and I could breathe again. Made me feel claustrophobic and suffocating”.

“I thought she was really crazy, because she treated me like crap towards the end,” says a second young woman who tells Rolling Stone that she started seeing Fukunaga after they met on one of his sets. “I became a really small, passive and quiet person, and I’m not normally like that”.

Hours after Vinberg’s post, Twins Caitlin and Hanna Loesch They issued a statement of support recounting a similar experience with the filmmaker, who even proposed a threesome and suggested that “incest is okay if all parties agree.”

The twins noted that they “were not raped, fired from a job, or forced to do anything physical against our will.” But they asked: “So why does it hurt so much now to see this man, from whom we voluntarily distanced ourselves, propped up as the honorable creator who brought a much-needed ‘feminist twist’ to an iconic film franchise like James Bond?”

Several ex-partners of Fukunaga, such as Margaret Qualley and Kristine Frosethshared Vinberg’s post on social media.

From the testimony of four other young women who tell Rolling Stone that Fukunaga pursued them during productions, one says that she feared the implications for her career when she tried to reject his advances. “it’s very scary“, He says, “when Cary is being a certain way to you and you don’t feel like you can ask him to stop“.