Eliza Dushku slams NDA from CBS' $9.5M payout: 'NDAs revictimize people'
Eliza Dushku is still upset about the sexual comments "Bull" star Michael Weatherly made about her on the set of the CBS legal drama and the culture that allowed it to happen.
In a new interview with Time, the actress, 38, says the non-disclosure agreement she signed as part of her $9.5 million settlement means she has to "talk in code" when she wants to discuss the situation.
Her payout, first reported by The New York Times and confirmed to USA TODAY in December, was made during an investigation into the culture at CBS under Leslie Moonves, who resigned as CEO three months earlier amid multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.
In March 2017, Dushku, whose credits include "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Dollhouse" and "Bring It On," signed on for three episodes at the end of the first season of "Bull" and was set to become a full-time cast member during the show's second season.
According to Time, Dushku confrontedWeatherly, who had graduated to top billing after 14 seasons on CBS' hit drama "NCIS," after he made sexual remarks. She said she was then written off of the show out of retaliation, but received the money after footage backed up her story.
“I guess what makes me angry is people knew. Important people knew,” she told Time “They could have done something. And they didn’t.”
I was harassed 'for weeks': Dushku breaks silence on 'Bull' firing, CBS settlement
Dushku also expressed anger over the nondisclosure agreement she signed that barred her from discussing the case publicly.
“We’re talking in code," she said. "NDAs revictimize people. They give more power to the powerful. And as the less-powerful person, you have to live in someone else’s (messed)-up version of reality.
In the original Times story, Dushku complained of "disgusting" behavior by Weatherly, including comments about how he wanted to spank her and have a threesome within earshot of the cast and crew of 'Bull," which is now in its third season.
Weatherly told the Times that those comments, and another in which he called a windowless van "a rape van," were meant as jokes.
In a statement shared with USA TODAY, CBS said that the $9.5 million figure reflected what Dushku would have made had she stayed on as a series regular.
Dushku has left Los Angeles and moved home to Boston, where she is now enrolled at Lesley University, a private college in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is studying holistic psychology, part of her effort to turn her focus to healing others.
“I need the distance to recalibrate and start a family,” Dushku told Time. “But I don’t want people to think coming forward means ending your career. I could be acting. I could be in L.A. I just need to be here right now.”
She made headlines last year when she revealed that she was molested by a stunt coordinator as a 12-year-old on the set of the 1994 film "True Lies." The stunt coordinator, Joel Kramer, has denied the allegations. Director James Cameron has said that if he'd known about the allegations at the time, he would have shown "no mercy" toward the crew member.
Dushku linked that experience to her later drug and alcohol abuse, telling Time, “We carry trauma in our bodies. That’s where addiction comes in. People try to numb themselves.”
According to the Time story, Dushku's addiction reached a point that her brother stopped letting her hang out with her niece. That wake-up call prompted her to seek help. She's been sober for a decade.
Contributing: Carly Mallenbaum and Bill Keveney
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Eliza Dushku slams NDA from CBS' $9.5M payout: 'NDAs revictimize people'