Rachel McAdams has spoken up about a tense conversation she had with filmmaker James Toback.

McAdams and fellow actress Selma Blair both talked to Vanity Fair about sexual harassment they believe Toback perpetrated on them.

The Los Angeles Times originally reported on Toback’s years of allegedly indulging in sexually improper behavior at private auditions in a shocking exposé published Sunday, which documented harassment complaints from 38 women. Since then, the number of accusers has increased.

Toback is most known for directing and writing films including “The Pick-up Artist,” “The Gambler,” and “Bugsy.”

Blair and McAdams, in an interview with Vanity Fair published Thursday, describe encounters similar to those detailed in the L.A. Times report, in which Toback, now 72, brags about his accomplishments and promises stardom, frequently referencing his friendship with Robert Downey Jr., before masturbating or simulating sex acts on the women.

Blair had already finished Cruel Intentions when her agent set up a meeting with Toback to discuss a possible role in his film Harvard Man. The encounter was supposed to take place at a hotel restaurant, but Blair claims that when she arrived, the hostess informed her that Toback had requested that she see him in his room.

Toback began telling Blair they had a “connection” as soon as she entered the room, and he questioned her readiness to trust her instincts. “You could be an incredible actress, just by your eyes,” he added. “But I can tell you don’t have confidence.”

“Will you trust me?” Toback said after telling Blair she would have to conduct her audition naked. “I cannot continue to work with you unless you trust me. I need you to take your clothes off. I need you to do this monologue naked.”

He also allegedly propositioned her for sex and threatened not to let her go until he “had release.” according to her. Blair claimed he then simulated sexual intercourse on her leg.

“I felt disgust and shame, and like nobody would ever think of me as being clean again after being this close to the devil,” Blair said. “His energy was so sinister.”

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She further claimed that he threatened to harm her if she told anybody about her ordeal.

Toback told Blair of another woman who nearly outed him: “If she ever tells anybody, no matter how much time she thinks went by, I have people who will pull up in a car, kidnap her, and throw her in the Hudson River with cement blocks on her feet. You understand what I’m talking about, right?”

McAdams, too, met with Toback under the pretense of discussing employment, namely a role in Toback’s 2001 film “Harvard Man,”

She was just beginning out in the profession at the age of 21. He told her after her audition that he wanted to work with her in a workshop. They met that night in his hotel room, when the talk swiftly became sexual, according to her.

She remembered, “He invited me to sit on the floor, which was a bit awkward.”

“Pretty quickly the conversation turned quite sexual and he said, ‘You know, I just have to tell you. I have masturbated countless times today thinking about you since we met at your audition.’”

According to McAdams, he then began using “manipulative” language, which she believes was his means of luring naive young ladies to his whims. He apparently questioned her about her courage, asking her, “How brave are you?” “How far are you willing to go?”

“I kept thinking, ‘When are we getting to the rehearsal part?’” she added. “Then he went to the bathroom and left me with some literature to read about him. When he came back he said, ‘I just jerked off in the bathroom thinking about you. Will you show me your pubic hair?’ I said no.”

McAdams later excused herself and departed, according to her.

“I was very lucky that I left and he didn’t actually physically assault me in any way,” she added, adding that she had felt regret for not leaving sooner.

When she told her agent about the incident, she discovered that other women had been harassed as well.

“That’s when I got mad,” she told Vanity Fair, “because I felt like I was kind of thrown into the lion’s den and given no warning that he was a predator. This was something that he was known for doing already.”

Blair urged Toback’s countless victims to continue speaking up and for Toback to accept responsibility for his actions. “None of us are asking for money, for jobs, or for fame,” she explained. “We don’t want to be threatened on social media or called whistleblowers by people who don’t know what it means to be defiled and degraded and made to feel worthless.”

Other victims

Brett Ratner is a filmmaker and producer known for his work on movies such as Rush Hour and X-Men: The Last Stand. However, in recent years, Ratner has been embroiled in controversy over allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct.

Here is a comprehensive look at the allegations against Ratner and the impact they have had on his career.

The allegations against Ratner first came to light in November 2017, when the Los Angeles Times published an article detailing the experiences of six women who claimed that Ratner had sexually harassed or assaulted them.

The women included actors Olivia Munn and Natasha Henstridge, as well as four other women who wished to remain anonymous.

Munn claimed that she had a brief encounter with Ratner in 2004, when she was invited to his trailer to deliver food. She alleged that Ratner was sitting in his boxer shorts and asked her to sit on his lap. She refused, but claimed that Ratner then masturbated in front of her.

Munn said that she was traumatized by the experience and didn’t speak out about it until years later.

Henstridge claimed that she met Ratner when she was 19 years old and still an aspiring actress. She alleged that Ratner forced her to perform oral sex on him in his apartment, and that she was too scared to resist.

Henstridge said that the experience left her feeling humiliated and violated, and that she didn’t tell anyone about it until she was in her 30s.

In addition to Munn and Henstridge, the other women who spoke to the Los Angeles Times also detailed disturbing experiences with Ratner.

One woman claimed that Ratner forcibly kissed her on the set of a music video, while another claimed that he exposed himself to her in a hotel room. A third woman claimed that Ratner pushed her against a wall and masturbated in front of her, while a fourth claimed that he forcibly kissed her at a party.