Actor Matthew Lawrence alleged Friday he lost a role in a Marvel film because he refused to strip naked for an Oscar-winning film director during a private meeting.
Lawrence used his Brotherly Love podcast co-hosted by his brothers, fellow actors Joey and Andrew Lawrence, to tell of being asked to disrobe as part of the interview process.
“There’s been many times in my life where I’ve been propositioned to get a huge role,” Lawrence says on the podcast. “I lost my agency because I went to the hotel room” where, the actor alleges, a prominent director “showed up in his robe, asked me to take my clothes off, said he needed to take Polaroids of me and said if I did X, Y and Z, I would be the next Marvel character.”
The “Mrs. Doubtfire” and “Boy Meets World’ actor further alleged his agency (which was also not identified) ended up firing him because he left the hotel room.
A representative for the 43-year-old was not immediately available for comment, Variety reports.
File/Actor Matthew Lawrence attends the premiere of Red Compass Media’s ‘The Lost Tree’ at Laemmle NoHo 7 on March 18, 2016 in North Hollywood, California. (Barry King/WireImage)
Lawrence was speaking during a broader exchange with the brothers about the #MeToo movement, which he applauded as “a very good thing.”
However, he argues that men have not received the same support as women when it comes to sharing their experiences with sexual harassment and abuse in the entertainment industry.
“Not a lot of guys in my opinion have come out and talked about this in the industry,” Lawrence said. “Now granted, it’s probably about a third of what women go through. Men go through this as well… I think our society is less ready to hear that situation is going on with men than they are with women.”
File/Actors Andrew Lawrence, Joey Lawrence and Matthew Lawrence attend the premiere of Pop TV’s “Hollywood Darlings” at iPic Theaters on April 6, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Matthew Simmons/Getty Images)
Lawrence began working as a child actor at the age of four.
He first came to public attention playing the son of Robin Williams’ character in the 1993 hit “Mrs. Doubtfire,” the long-lost Jack Hunter in the ABC sitcom “Boy Meets World” and a lead role on the family comedy “Brotherly Love,” which aired from 1995 to 1997 on the WB Network and also featured his siblings, Joey Lawrence and Andrew Lawrence.
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