Last year’s honorees from HBO Max’s medical drama The Pitt kicked off the program at the Rape Treatment Center and Stuart House Annual Brunch held at the Skirball Cultural Center on Sunday, Sept. 27.
“This past season on The Pitt, we had the privilege of telling the story of a sexual assault survivor,” said the show’s star Noah Wyle from the podium, after the crowd had seated for lunch in the ballroom following a cocktail hour. “Like several Hollywood productions before us, from All in the Family to Grey’s Anatomy, we turned to the Rape Treatment Center for guidance in depicting the aftermath of sexual violence on screen.”
“We care deeply about getting the story right,” added his co-star Katherine LaNasa. “We wanted it to reflect not only what happens during a sexual assault, but what it feels like to be that victim sitting in that room — the uncertainty, the questions, the fear that maybe what happened to them doesn’t count as sexual assault.”
Wyle recalled how, after the episode aired, the RTC heard from a young man who had seen the show — “like the survivor in our story, he had been drinking … and he’d been struggling to understand what had happened and whether he had the right to call it a sexual assault,” Wyle said. Finished LaNasa, “And he decided to come forward.”
The group of supporters — which included Octavia Spencer, Julie Bowen (who later led a live auction), PAIGE brand founder Paige Adams-Geller (a two-time sexual assault victim, who shared her story of reaching out to the RTC for therapy), City Attorney Hydee Feldman Soto, Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin and Beverly Hills Chief of Police Max Subin — then enjoyed a lunch of tomato and burrata salad and a spinach, mushroom and broccoli frittata before the presentation continued. The annual brunch is a key fundraiser for UCLA Health’s Rape Treatment Center and Stuart House — founded in 1974 and committed to ensuring continued access to emergency care, advocacy, prevention education and long-term support for sexual assault survivors and their families.
This year’s event honored the cast of Apple TV’s The Morning Show — represented by Mark Duplass, Karen Pittman, June Diane Raphael, Holland Taylor, Shari Belafonte, Victoria Tate, Rachel Marsh and Hannah Leder.
“In The Morning Show‘s first season … the character of Hannah [Gugu Mbatha-Raw] was talented, she was ambitious, she was excellent at her job and then she was assaulted by a man with enormous power,” said the center’s director Dr. Jane Halladay Goldman, who introduced executive producer and director Mimi Leder, and stars Duplass, Pittman and Hannah Leder.
“What we’ve tried to do with The Morning Show is be fearless,” said Mimi Leder. “When we started developing a show about power dynamics in the workplace, we didn’t know what was coming. The #MeToo movement affected all of us, giving our creative team a North Star for season 1.” She added: “A special shout-out to Jen Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Jon Hamm, Julianna Margulies and Sean Hayes for their previous involvement in this event and unwavering advocacy for survivors.”
Duplass talked about his character, who made a choice to speak truth to power. “At that time, Chip wasn’t used to challenging the status quo,” he said. “It’s not enough to not be a part of the problem. In order to make real change, we must be a part of the solution.” Pitman noted how her character eventually finds the strength to raise her voice and take control of her own narrative.
Then, actress Hannah Leder — daughter of director Mimi Leder, who plays recurring character Isabella — stepped up to the podium. “When I found out that our show was being honored here, I had the most out of body experience,” she began. “It took me back to a Tuesday morning, Nov. 8, 2011, a few weeks after I turned 25. I was in a pretty deep, dark, scary place — floating around outside my body, trying to make it to work, trying to brush my teeth, trying to feel anything but empty.”
She continued: “The previous Saturday night, I’d been drinking with someone I considered a close friend. I drank, I drank, I drank, until I left my body … and when I came back, my friend was inside of it. I said, ‘Stop,’ then promptly fell back into what felt like a deep slumber. When I came to, it was still happening. My body was no longer mine.
“I spent the following days questioning my reality, my character. It was obviously my fault: I’d been drinking. I deserved to feel hollow and broken. Until I told my big sister and a friend, and they both told me that my shame was not mine: that I had been raped.”
“So that Tuesday morning, I called my gynecologist,” Leder went on. “The office told me I needed a special exam from a special clinic, something called a rape kit. I called my big sister, who promptly told me to meet her at the Rape Treatment Center in Santa Monica, which I did. She held my hand as evidence was collected, abrasions were documented and the morning-after pill promptly administered.” Added Leder, “The humanity and peace that the staff at RTC afforded me in my darkest hour was a kindness and a tenderness I will never forget.”
Leder discussed what a pivotal step this was in her healing journey, which led to her getting sober and working on creative endeavors like The Morning Show. “And years later, on a different Tuesday morning, [I had] the gift of holding my big sister’s hand again, as I gave birth to my son.”
“Tomorrow, is my 40th birthday, and today, I have the meaningful honor of crossing paths with RTC and Stuart House again,” Leder said. “Things look a lot different than they did 15 years ago today … I’m free from a shame that isn’t mine. Not every day is pretty; healing isn’t linear. But when I found out about this event today, I requested the chance to share my story with you all, because letting my story be witnessed and honoring the incredible impact that RTC has on so many people’s lives is really the greatest birthday gift I could ever ask for.”
The post ‘The Morning Show’ Actress Hannah Leder Shares Own Experience at Rape Treatment Center and Stuart House Brunch appeared first on LAmag.
