Thandie Newton: 'I was sexually abused as a young actress'

Thandie Newton has lifted the lid on sexual abuse in Hollywood after revealing a director put a camera up her skirt during an audition.

The 43-year-old has made a name for herself over the years in movies such as Crash and Mission: Impossible II. But as she began her career, Thandie was the victim of a shocking situation when she was taken advantage of by a movie director.

Thandie made the allegations in a new interview with W Magazine, but did not identify the man, who she claimed "had a camera shooting up my skirt.

"(He) asked me to touch my t*ts and think about the guy making love to me in the scene. I thought, ‘OK, this is a little weird,’ but there was a female casting director in the room and I’d done weird stuff before so I did it," Thandie continued.

Despite her concerns about the situation, Thandie put it behind her and moved on with her life. But as she attended a film festival years later, she met a producer who had over indulged in alcohol, who told her: 'Oh, Thandie, I’ve seen you recently!'

"And he lurched away looking really shocked that he’d said that," she said.

When Thandie's husband Ol Parker asked the man to explain what he meant, the producer said that "the director was showing that audition tape to his friends after poker games at his house. And they would all get off on it."

The actress has decided to speak out about the incident in the hope of making other young actresses understand that sort of situation is unacceptable.

"I was so so naive when I started out and I realize now that we have to prepare our kids – I’ve got two beautiful daughters, one is 16 one is 11," Thandie said. "One person will read this and it will stop them getting sexually abused by a director. That’s the person I’m interested in."