Actress Selma Blair Claims She Pinched James Toback’s Nipples, Let Him ‘Rub Up Against’ Her Leg to Avoid Rape

Actress Selma Blair opened up to Vanity Fair alleging that Hollywood director James Toback asked her to read lines for a movie role naked in his hotel room, pleasured himself on her leg, and threatened to have her and her father killed if she ever told anyone about their meeting.

The alleged assault occurred in 1999, while Blair was auditioning for a part in Toback’s movie Harvard Man. 

Blair says her representative scheduled a hotel room meeting with the Oscar-nominated filmmaker for a prospective role that, “40 minutes in,” went from a “training” to Toback allegedly saying: “I need you to take your clothes off. I need you to do this monologue naked.”

As the meeting went on, Blair said Toback became more sexually aggressive. He allegedly went from rubbing “his penis through his pants” to asking Blair, “Would you f–k me?”

Blair says she made it clear that she wouldn’t have sex with Toback, to which she says he replied: “It’s O.K. I can come in my pants. I have to rub up against your leg. You have to pinch my nipples. And you have to look into my eyes.”

Blair, fearing the worst and believing she was out of options, said she thought, “‘Well, if I can get out of here without being raped . . .’”

Toback allegedly threatened to have her father killed. “I do it all the time,” Blair recalled Toback saying. “I know people.” Blair also said Toback made it clear that he would have her killed if “she ever tells anybody” about their alleged encounter.

From Vanity Fair:

He walked me back to the bed. He sat me down. He got on his knees. And he continued to press so hard against my leg. He was greasy and I had to look into those big brown eyes. I tried to look away, but he would hold my face. So I was forced to look into his eyes. And I felt disgust and shame, and like nobody would ever think of me as being clean again after being this close to the devil. His energy was so sinister.

After he finished, he told me, “There is a girl who went against me. She was going to talk about something I did. I am going to tell you, and this is a promise, if she ever tells anybody, no matter how much time she thinks went by, I have people who will pull up in a car, kidnap her, and throw her in the Hudson River with cement blocks on her feet. You understand what I’m talking about, right?”

He looked at me with those bug eyes that had just raped my leg. And I said, “Yes. I understand.”

The actress took to Twitter Thursday to share her story:

Thank you for listening. @VanityFair. the #original38 and all the hundreds. I am with you. Thank you #Rachelmcadams https://t.co/dbQHUyS2lZ

— Selma Blair (@SelmaBlair) October 26, 2017

Blair first made her allegations against Toback, 72, to the Los Angeles Times last week but agreed to speak anonymously. She agreed to go on the record along with actress Rachel McAdams, who also alleged being sexually assaulted by Toback in his hotel room when she was a 21-year-old aspiring star.

Read their full story here.

Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson