Matthew Lawrence Alleges That He Was Fired By an Agency For Refusing To Strip For A Director

Matthew Lawrence shared that he was let go from an agency because he refused to stay in a director’s hotel room when he was asked to take off his clothes.

Opening Up

The 43-year-old sat down for a chat on the Brotherly Love podcast with Joey and Andrew Lawrence. The trio discussed personal experiences in the spotlight and #MeToo movement.

“I lost my agency because I went to the hotel room — which I can’t believe they would send me to — of a very prominent Oscar award-winning director who showed up in his robe, asked me to take my clothes off and said he needed to take polaroids of me,” Lawrence shared. “And if I did X, Y and Z, I would be the next Marvel character.”

“Not a lot of guys, in my opinion, have come out and talked about this in the industry,” Lawrence added. “Now, granted, it’s probably about a third of what women go through. Men go through this as well.”

Lawrence did not mention the director or the agency, not giving any names.

The actor also talked about Terry Crews, who has been very vocal about his own #MeToo experience.

In 2018, actor Terry Crews alleged that Adam Venit, the former head of the motion picture department at William Morris Endeavor and a top Hollywood agent, had groped him at a party two years prior. Crews subsequently filed a lawsuit against WME and Venit, though it was dismissed by the Los Angeles District Attorney due to the statute of limitations. Venit denied the allegations and was later suspended and demoted.

Unbridled Bravery

“A lot of these stories, a lot of my other male friends have gone through — both men and women in this industry — but there’s a double standard and this is where I bring Terry Crews,” Lawrence shared.

He continued, “Terry Crews comes out and says it, people are laughing at him. People don’t support him. They kick him out, why? Because he’s a man that represents masculinity, and I think our society is less ready to hear that situation going on with men than they are with women, actually.”

Joey replied: “The bottom line is, there’s been a lot of those crossroads and those thresholds that, you know, of course, we’ve all been a part of that. And those moments are tough. For me, when those moments arose — and there were plenty, obviously — it was just a principle thing for me.”

“I just wasn’t gonna do it. And I lost out on a lot of parts, too. Big movie parts,” Joey said. “And like you said, I know the guys that went on and did them, and I don’t know what situations they were into. I’m not even gonna speculate. But I know that it was set up in an infrastructure where that was expected.”

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