Rufus Sewell has opened up on the sexual abuse allegations made by Judy Garland’s ex-husband Sid Luft.
The star is playing the now late producer in the biopic Judy, and has called Hollywood a ‘hotbed of abuse’ when talking about its golden age.
During his appearance on This Morning, Phillip Schofield spoke to the 51-year-old about The Wizard Of Oz star’s life.
The host stated: ‘Her life was extraordinary you look in the old days of Hollywood… She was so so young, it’s 80 years this year of The Wizard Of Oz.
‘And there’s a film where there are sexual allegations on set for such a young girl.’
Looking disheartened, Rufus agreed, adding: ‘The stories on set, the crazy thing about it is we think of the golden age particularly presented by that film being the most innocent… There is no sin, you know?
‘But underneath all of that there was this kid of hotbed of abuse.’
He said: ‘One likes to think that the fact these things are out in the open, it means there’s a chance of things getting better because it was worse when it was all covered up.’
In Sid’s memoir, written before he passed in 2005, he claimed Judy’s life was made ‘miserable’ on set by the munchkins.
In an extract published by The Sun, Luft says: ‘They thought they could get away with anything because they were so small.
‘They would make Judy’s life miserable on set by putting their hands under her dress. The men were 40 or more years old.’
The memoir, titled Judy and I: My Life With Judy Garland, was written in 1965 after the couple were divorced.
Rufus stars alongside Renee Zellweger, who plays Judy herself.
Talking about the first time he met the actress, he laughed: ‘I had never met Renee before, she was done up as Judy, she wasn’t in character – but there she was with the teeth, the hair and makeup and she was halfway through filming the scene.
‘I was meeting a mixture of the two of them,’ he smirked.
‘I got to know Judy and Renee at the same time, it was only a couple of nights ago that I met Renee without any of the Judy…’
This Morning continues weekdays at 10.30am on ITV.
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