Dave Itzkoff profiles actress/director Sarah Polley in the New York Times, in advance of the publication of her new essay collection Run Towards the Danger.
In the profile, Itzkoff references one of those essays, titled “The Woman Who Stayed Silent.” In that particular essay, Polley recounts a horrific experience with former CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi, who was acquitted in 2016 on multiple charges of sexual assault following the allegations of numerous women.
Recalling what she used to describe as “a funny party story about my worst date ever,” Polley writes of being 16 (Ghomeshi was 28 at the time) when she fled his apartment “after he became violent during a sexual encounter in which he ignored her pleas to stop hurting her.”
As several women came forward to share eerily similar allegations about Ghomeshi’s behaviour, Polley writes that “friends, lawyers and other experts” persuaded her to keep her mouth shut, warning “that her memory and sexual history would be subjected to merciless cross-examination.” In addition, her interactions with Ghomeshi in subsequent years — including “friendly radio interviews and playful emails” — could also be used to destroy her character.
However, Polley tells Itzkoff that she’s since come to regret keeping silent. “I felt a deep, ethical obligation, especially to the women who came forward in that case, to tell that story, and a deep haunting that I wasn’t able to tell it sooner,” she explained.
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“I feel a relief in finally just standing up,” she added. “But I’ll always wonder if it’s just too little too late. That’s always going to be with me.”
According to the Times, Ghomeshi didn’t respond to requests for comment.
