BAFTA said in a statement on Friday that in the days following an announcement that Mr. Clarke would be awarded the prize, it received emails accusing him of sexual misconduct.
The allegations, the organization said, were either anonymous or second- or third-hand accounts via intermediaries, adding that it would have responded differently if the testimonies had come directly from the accusers.
“No names, times, dates, productions or other details were ever provided,” BAFTA said. “Had the victims gone on record as they have with The Guardian, the award would have been suspended immediately.”
BAFTA, which had previously honored Mr. Clarke with its rising star award in 2009, said in an earlier statement, released shortly after the article was published, that it had suspended his award and membership of the academy “immediately and until further notice.”
The Guardian report cited nearly two dozen women in the movie industry who said they had been subjected to a range of abuses that include unwanted physical contact, groping and forced kisses, as well as unsolicited sexual behavior on set, including eight on the record.
The Norwegian film producer Synne Seltveit said Mr. Clarke slapped her buttocks in 2015, and later sent an unwanted explicit sexual picture. The actress Gina Powel said Mr. Clarke exposed himself to her in a car and later groped her in an elevator, also in 2015. Anna Avramenko, an assistant film director, said Mr. Clarke had forcibly kissed her on set in 2008 and had tried several times again after the incident.
Helen Atherton, an art director on “Brotherhood,” which is part of “The Hood” trilogy, said Mr. Clarke had violated norms for the ethical filming of sex and nude scenes, including the hiring a nonprofessional actress to perform a scene in which intimate parts of her anatomy were visible.
Source : Nytimes
