Camila Mendes: ‘Riverdale’ sexual assault claims damage the #MeToo movement
Camila Mendes is defending her recently-accused-of-sexual-assault “Riverdale” co-stars.
“Someone saying to me that somebody would do such a thing to prove a point? It seems so trivial,” Mendes said on SiriusXM’s “The Jess Cagle Show” Tuesday.
“You really went to that extent? To damage not only the integrity of the #MeToo movement, but to potentially damage the careers of these people and their lives? To do that in order to make a point about how easily people believe things, it’s so backwards to me.”
Mendes also defended her colleagues Monday via Instagram.
“It’s incredibly destructive to falsely accuse people of sexual assault,” Mendes shared. “Whatever point this person was trying to make about how quickly people believe what they read, it was not worth damaging the integrity of the me too movement.”
The CW star continued, “It’s sickening and doesn’t prove anything except that there are twisted people in this world who have no concern for the consequences of their harmful actions.”
“Riverdale” co-stars Lili Reinhart, Cole Sprouse and KJ Apa have all faced sexual assault allegations from anonymous people on social media. Sunday, a woman named Victoria claimed on Twitter that Sprouse “became aggressive” in his room after a party at his NYU dorm. Another woman came forward Monday to accuse Reinhart of groping her while taking a fan photo together.
“It invalidates the men and women who are brave enough to come forward with the truth,” Reinhart, 23, tweeted in response to the accusations. “This kind of lie can ruin lives and careers — and I can call it a lie because the person who made the allegations already admitted that the stories were fabricated.”
The “Hustlers” actress also retweeted one of Sprouse’s tweets stating the cast and their teams were investigating the source of the false claims, adding, “I have always taken sexual assault allegations seriously. But it was proven that this account was created specifically to create false stories about me and my cast. I can’t think of something more twisted than lying about sexual assault.”
Article via PageSix