Young veteran actor cites pedophile problem in Hollywood
“People with parasitic interests will see you as their prey.”
So says Elijah Wood, who generally commands a bit of attention when he speaks.
And the reason for that is obvious, given that Wood, now 35 years old, has already had a decades-long acting career on television and in movies. Most notably, of course, he was the center figure in the epic Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Wood’s veteran status as an actor has made him sure of certain things. Sadly, one of those is what he says is a continuing problem of child sexual abuse occurring in the entertainment industry.
And Wood minces no words when he underscores the magnitude of that scourge.
“There are a lot of vipers in this industry,” he says, “and a darkness in [its] underbelly.”
Wood points to a seeming epidemic of movie-industry abuse in both England and California. He references Jimmy Savile, a renowned English television and radio personality, who was widely deemed as a prolific sexual offender following his death, and he further notes an organized pattern of abuse in Hollywood. He states that it is perpetuated by authority figures in the industry and because victims “can’t speak as loudly as people in power.”
Wood’s views are echoed by others. One of them, a founder of an advocacy group for young actors, points to a “tsunami” of claims that she says is coming. She states that about 100 pedophiles are actively abusing child actors in Hollywood.
Wood says that the tight parental grip of his mother kept him safe when he was acting as a child.
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