Björk has shared more details of the sexual harassment she says she suffered at the hands of an unnamed director.
In a Facebook post, the musician said she was prompted to give more information by the success of the #MeToo social media campaign, which is being used by victims of sexual harassment and assault. Björk provided a list of encounters with the director that she said she believed “count[ed] as sexual harassment”. These included “unwanted whispered sexual offers from him with graphic descriptions” as well as a threat to “climb from his room’s balcony over to mine in the middle of the night with a clear sexual intention.”
It follows a Facebook post published by the musician on 15 October, in which she claimed to have been sexually harassed by a director and said that she “became aware of that it is a universal thing that a director can touch and harass his actresses at will and the institution of film allows it”.
In the more recent post, Björk also alleged the director “fabricated stories in the press about me being difficult [...] I have never eaten a shirt. Not sure that is even possible.” In 2000, the musician starred in Lars Von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark. Prior to the film’s release it was reported that Björk had eaten part of a blouse on set.
Yesterday, Von Trier responded to allegations in Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. He denied he had sexually harassed the musician, saying “that was not the case. But that we were definitely not friends, that’s a fact.” Producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen, who worked with Von Trier on Dancer in the Dark, said the two men … “were the victims. That woman was stronger than both Lars Von Trier and me and our company put together. She dictated everything and was about to close a movie of 100m kroner [$16m].”
