Actress Sarah Scott has accused actor Kip Pardue, star of the Hulu drama The Runaways, of sexual misconduct.
Scott, 35, told the Los Angeles Times that Pardue, 43, put her hand on his groin on May 16 as they waited to film a sex scene for the independent TV pilot Mogulettes. After they filmed the scene, Pardue called her into his dressing room and started masturbating in front of her, she said.
“I literally froze,” the actress recalled. “I said, ‘What are you doing?’”
“This isn’t a #MeToo thing,” he allegedly responded. “I’m not your employer. It’s not like I can fire you.”
Scott fled the room but encountered Pardue again as she prepared to leave the set, she said. She asked him why he masturbated in front of her, and he said it was because she was “just so hot,” she claimed.
In a statement provided to the Times through Pardue’s representative, the actor apologized for putting her hand on his penis during filming but claimed Scott’s other allegations are untrue.
“I clearly misread the situation during a sex scene on set and have apologized to Sarah,” he said. “I never intended to offend her in any way and deeply regret my actions and have learned from my behavior.”
Mogulettes executive producer Bennett Talsky said he called Pardue to get his version of the events, and Talsky told the Times the actor “danced around” the issue during their conversation.
“He was trying to justify it, saying they had really good chemistry and he got carried away,” Talsky added. “It didn’t get anywhere, and I didn’t really confront him — I was just trying to feel him out and see if he felt like he had screwed up.”
Deadline reports that neither Hulu nor Marvel has issued a comment about Pardue’s possible removal from The Runaways’ second season, which has wrapped production and is slated to start streaming on December 21.
