Costume designer Susan Bertram has alleged that actor Robert Knepper sexually assaulted her on the sets of Allison Anders’s Gas Food Lodging in 1991, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Bertram told The Hollywood Reporter that on the second day of the shoot, when she had gone to the actor’s trailer to drop off some clothes, Knepper grabbed her, shoved her against a wall and made a sexually explicit suggestion. She managed to push him off and ran from the trailer, she said.
She alleged that Knepper had torn out a piece of her flesh in the bargain. “I just sat there and cried for a while. My dress was torn, I was dirty,” she said.
Knepper played Theodore Bagwell “T-Bag” in the Golden Globe-nominated show Prison Break. He has also appeared in several films, including Good Night and Good Luck (2005), Hitman (2007) and Transporter 3 (2008).
Bertram’s accusations follow a wave of similar allegations against prominent Hollywood personalities. After The New York Times published a report detailing allegations of sexual misconduct against Producer Harvey Weinstein, several others, including James Toback, Kevin Spacey, Dustin Hoffman and Brett Ratner have been accused of sexual harassment.
Bertram said she decided to tell her story after US President Donald Trump’s Access Hollywood tapes became public in August 2016. The 2005 tape featured Trump making sexually explicit comments about several women. “When that happened, I started reeling,” Betram said. “People think that’s a joke, but that really happened to me.”
