For a moment, it really did look like Brett Ratner might never work in Hollywood again. In October 2017, a former talent agency employee accused the Rush Hour director of rape. Days later, as Ratner began suing her for libel, a further six women came forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct.
Olivia Munn alleged he had “furiously” masturbated in front of her on a film set. Another actor, Natasha Henstridge, claimed he “physically forced” her to perform oral sex. Arriving in the wake of the high-profile allegations against Harvey Weinstein that sparked the #MeToo movement, the accusations were taken seriously. Within days, Ratner’s multi-million-dollar production deal at Warner Bros had been shredded, and Playboy announced that his planned Hugh Hefner biopic had been, like the filmmaker himself, decisively cancelled.
