httpss://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bujFhDHYAC4
Former “Independence Day” star Randy Quaid has joined the #MeToo movement, claiming he was raped as child.
Quaid said on Twitter that a 14-year-old neighbor named Rodney sexually abused him when Quaid was 5 years old.
The actor, now 67, tweeted that Rodney threatened to “Bust me over the head” with a glass bottle of rubbing alcohol if he didn’t submit.
“The trauma from the experience probably had something to do with me becoming an actor. Immersing myself in a character is a means of channeling the rage, removing me from myself essentially allowing me to utilize the emotional baggage that’s piled up inside through the years. Many actors have experienced severe emotional trauma in their lives to one degree or another. For us, acting is more than just a career, it’s a way of coping, a welcomed survival mechanism,” Quaid wrote.
Quaid said he told his mother what happened, and she told a policeman, but Quaid didn’t specify what happened to his alleged abuser.
The Oscar-nominated actor, also known for roles in “Kingpin,” “Brokeback Mountain” and “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” said he was inspired to share his story after seeing others voice allegations of harassment or abuse by other big names in Hollywood, including Harvey Weinstein, James Toback, Kevin Spacey, Dustin Hoffman, Brett Ratner and Jeremy Piven.
“With all the other victims of abuse coming forward now is a good time to tell this story and join others dealing with their own, similar Hollywood encounters that must to be addressed and the perpetrators exposed for their evil smarminess,” Quaid tweeted.
Quaid’s last on-screen role was in 2009, due to the actor fleeing to Canada in 2010 when he and his wife Evi were accused of squatting in a California home they once owned and vandalized.
The couple returned to the U.S. in 2015 to care for Evi Quaid’s ailing father in Vermont and to address charges in California.