Ellen Barkin alleges that Sea of Love director Harold Becker forcefully tore off her merkin during production.
Barkin, who currently appears in Rian Johnson’s new series, Poker Face, starred in the 1989 neo-noir thriller alongside Al Pacino and John Goodman.
In a recent interview with HuffPost, Barkin said she felt powerless to react to abusive behaviour from men in Hollywood as a young actor.
“You do nothing,” B]arkin, who was in her early thirties while filming Sea of Love. “What was I going to do when Harold Becker on Sea of Love walks over and literally rips my merkin off, taking some pubic hair with him and saying: ‘What do you need this for? Nobody’s looking at you.’”
A merkin is a pubic wig used by actors to protect their modesty on set.
A representative for Becker did not immediately respond to The Independent’s request for comment.
“This is what [the industry’s] like,” Barkin continued. “And I had an easy time with it, believe me.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Barkin recalled one producer who told her she “looks like a girl who could give you a disease”.
“The truth is, I am 68 years old,” she told the publication about revealing the discrimination she’s faced in the industry. “I don’t give a f***. I’m fresh out of all my f***s.”
Barkin appeared in the highly publicised defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard last year as a witness for the defence (Heard).
Barkin alleged that Depp supplied her with a Quaalude drug before having sex for the first time and that there “was always an air of violence around him”.
Poker Face is streaming now on Peacock.
