Actor Matthew Lawrence opened the April 28 episode of his Brotherly Love podcast on a serious note, reflecting on the #MeToo movement and his own experience with sexual harassment in Hollywood.
On the show, co-hosted by his brothers, fellow actors Joey and Andrew Lawrence, the 43-year-old actor recounts his experience refusing to engage with a director involved with a Marvel project, who asked Lawrence to take his clothes off during a meeting.
“There’s been many times in my life where I’ve been propositioned to get a huge role,” Lawrence says on the podcast. “I lost my agency because I went to the hotel room” where, the actor alleges, a prominent director “showed up in his robe, asked me to take my clothes off, said he needed to take Polaroids of me and said if I did X, Y and Z, I would be the next Marvel character.”
Lawrence alleges that his agency (which he did not identify by name) ended up firing him because he left the hotel room. A representative for the actor was not immediately available for comment.
Lawrence began working as a child actor at the age of four. Notable credits include playing the son of Robin Williams’ character in the 1993 smash “Mrs. Doubtfire,” the long-lost Jack Hunter in the ABC sitcom “Boy Meets World” and a lead role on the family comedy “Brotherly Love,” which aired from 1995 to 1997 on the WB Network and also featured his siblings, Joey Lawrence and Andrew Lawrence.
Matthew Lawrence shared his difficult experience during a larger conversation between the brothers about the #MeToo movement, which he calls “a very good thing.” However, he argues that men have not received the same support as women when it comes to sharing their experiences with sexual harassment and abuse in the entertainment industry.
“Not a lot of guys in my opinion have come out and talked about this in the industry,” Lawrence said. “Now granted, it’s probably about a third of what women go through. Men go through this as well… I think our society is less ready to hear that situation is going on with men than they are with women.”