UPDATED 6/9/23 8PM–Sarah Joy Brown is known to soap opera audiences for playing two roles, at different times, on ABC’s “General Hospital.” She won three Daytime Emmy Awards for her work (and received four other nominations).
Tonight on a Twitter Spaces, she has accused Martin Campbell, director of two James Bond movies (“Casino Royale” and “Golden Eye”), of sexual assault. It’s not rape. But she says Campbell, directing her on an ABC pilot in 2003 called “10 to 8,” violently shoved his tongue down her throat after requesting to see her privately when her work was done on the show. It left her shaken to her core.
Brown had recently left ABC’s “General Hospital” for the first time after winning her Emmy awards. She says she told her father as soon as it happened, and told her manager as well. The manager, a woman, advised her not to say anything. The pilot, “10 to 8,” went to series with Brown in a recurring role but was cancelled after 8 episodes. Brown worked on other soaps, and movies and eventually returned to “General Hospital” in a new role.
Brown also says she was “gaslit more than once” by former CBS chief Leslie Moonves. (That’s for another story.)
The actress also says that after she began talking her claim during the #MeToo movement she has not worked at all since 2018 except for a couple of freebies.
Campbell’s other credits include two “Zorro” movies and “The Green Lantern.” I’ve emailed Campbell’s attorney and will report any statement from him or the actor as soon as possible.
UPDATE I spoke to Brown this evening. I asked her why she didn’t report this incident right away. She wound up holding off until she returned to “General Hospital” a second time.
“I thought back, why didn’t I kick him in the balls? Because you’re stunned. The first thought that goes through your mind is, My career is over. One way or another, this man is going to hurt me.”
This happened long before Harvey Weinstein’s victims spoke up and told their stories about careers wrecked after their violent encounters with the movie mogul. “Everyone told me just to move on and not let it capsize my career,” Brown explains.
This sounds not different from what Weinstein’s victims said when they finally spoke up. Even Brown didn’t quite believe the stories she started hearing about Weinstein. “I thought if he was actually a rapist he wouldn’t be working at his capacity. But I was at the women’s march in 2017 through Hollywood. And there was a big billboard of Martin Campbell’s new movie. I had to go home.”
Brown spoke to Ronan Farrow at the time, about her dealings with Les Moonves. “CBS reached out to me and I provided them with information,” she tells me. But she didn’t tell Farrow about Campbell. “I told him I had a story, and met with Ronan’s producer. I detailed everything for him.” But nothing came of it. He didn’t have the resources for it. “I was disappointed.”
(More on Moonves later. Brown is a tremendous font of information about the sexual abuse of actresses in Hollywood.)
What made Brown speak up now? “Seeing that Clive Owen would take a role and Daisy Ridley, in a new movie directed by Campbell. And this was after I’d already spoken up about what happened on Twitter. I couldn’t believe it, particularly after #MeToo and everything that happened. It really stinks.”
What does Brown want now? “I’m not interested in suing. I want Martin to retire. I want women to know who these men are who think they can take women like me and treat us like we are nothing.”
Book publishers take note: Sarah Joy Brown has a great story to tell, maybe better than Rose McGowan. She could crack Hollywood wide open.
