A Hollywood director has alleged that a major actor in the industry is being protected, despite rumours of their behaviour off-camera.
Jim Field Smith, who directs Apple TV's hit series Hijack made the accusations in an explosive set of tweets over the weekend.
It comes just days after Channel 4, working with The Times, exposed Russell Brand for alleged rape, assault and sexual violence.
READ MORE: Russell Brand’s sister-in-law Kirsty Gallacher trolled over old Instagram posts
The broadcaster aired a special edition of the Dispatches programme on Saturday night (September 16), where five women said they all had allegedly been physically or sexually assaulted by the former Big Brother's Big Mouth host.
The Forgetting Sarah Marshall actor, 48, strongly denies the "very serious allegations" made against him, taking to Twitter before the documentary went public.
Now, Smith has claimed that a top-level Hollywood actor, known only as 'Actor X', is being protected by higher ups in the industry.
The director said that he had the opportunity to work with the actor previously, but refused having heard the claims.
Taking to Twitter, Smith wrote: "I was once dissuaded from hiring Actor X because other actors I was meeting for other roles had heard X might be attached to the project and had said unequivocally they would not work on the project in those circumstances.
"There were no criminal allegations against X, but rather a pattern of behaviour that several people had either noticed or been personally subjected to".
Jim added that when he asked why people did not know about the allegations, the response was that "speaking up didn’t seem to make a difference".
He also said that he believed the actions of the person were "troubling", opting to cut all ties with the person in question and explaining their reasoning why.
Since then, the director alleged that the actor's agency has sent him "fury and thinly-veiled threats", calling them "eye-watering, but not unexpected".
The unnamed actor the directly contacted Jim who reassured him that the accusations were merely "gossip".
He was then quizzed by the actor who demanded to know who his sources were for the accusations – before listing off several potential suspects.
Smith continued: "But of course several years later X is still working, in front of and behind camera. Those that had expressed their concerns originally were all right about one thing for sure – speaking up didn’t seem to make a difference".
Jim admitted he felt compelled to tell his story in the wake of Russell Brand's allegations, and urged others to speak up on behalf of the victims to hold people accountable.
"The onus is not on victims to press charges. There is also not, as Russell Brand seems to think, a statute of limitations on s***ty behaviour," he wrote.
"We should of course hear and enable the victims’ voices. But it’s not them that should be forced to speak up. It’s us".
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