An actress has described feeling “humiliated and totally powerless” after Noel Clarke directed her in a production, in the latest testimony from a Guardian witness in Clarke’s libel claim against the UK newspaper.
The woman, known as Mila for legal reasons, said she was acting in a scene that required waist-down nudity.
Speaking in London’s High Court on Thursday, March 20, Mila said Clarke often asked her to “sit on his lap and made inappropriate sexual comments”, including telling her to bend over.
Mila said she had been uncomfortable about the scene but accepted the role as she needed the work.
“Noel was telling me to bend over, repeating things like ‘bend over further, come on’, and ‘do it properly’,” said Mila in her witness statement.
“I was clearly very uncomfortable and resisting doing this, I was doing the strip tease as requested and this extra request did not feel necessary.”
The actress added that while Clarke’s tone “might have sounded jovial to some, it was very persistent”, and that the filming left her feeling “hugely embarrassed, blindsided and shell-shocked.”
Philip Williams, representing Clarke, suggested that Clarke’s tone was “encouraging and jovial”, hence Mila’s inclusion of the word ‘jovial’ in her statement.
“He was masking his persistent direction,” replied Mila. “If he had been aggressive, or really, really shouting at me, that would have been hard to get away with.”
Phone call
In her witness statement, Mila said she later worked on another project with Clarke – one that did not include any sex scenes.
Sometime after this, she said she received a message from Clarke “out of the blue” asking if they could speak. When they did speak on the phone, Mila said Clarke asked her if they “were cool” in relation to the first film.
“I told him that I was not ok with it and that I had felt very uncomfortable at various points and that I would not let something like that happen to me again,” said Mila in her statement.
“Noel said he was sorry if he had made me feel uncomfortable,” Mila’s statement continued. “He was talking about how becoming a father had made him reflect and that he wanted to raise his sons to be upstanding young men. He said he was ringing round people to apologise.”
Mila added Clarke seemed “panicked” on the call, and she felt “his purpose was either fishing to see whether I was unhappy about his treatment of me on the film, or he was trying to cover his tracks in some way”.
Clarke denies Mila’s allegations, stating in his witness statement that “The reiteration of the scene is highly distorted and exaggerated. This scene was not filmed to procure any kind of personal or sexual gratification, nor was that ever the intention.”
He claims he did not comment in the manner Mila has claimed, nor ask her to bend over in any way which made her uncomfortable or was not true to the script.
Regarding the phone call, Clarke said he got in contact with Mila after being made aware of comments she had made about her experience filming the nude scene.
“I apologised for any hardship she may have felt or if, in retrospect, Mila felt uncomfortable,” said Clarke. “I confirmed that no untoward behaviour had been engaged in, and reassured her that protocol had been followed by the crew at all times.
“Mila accepted my apology, admitting that in retrospect, she had changed her mind about her involvement in the scene, and felt uncomfortable taking part in an explicit scene.”
The hearing is reaching the end of its second full week. Clarke is suing Guardian News and Media (GNM), the publisher of the Guardian, over seven articles and a podcast, including an article in April 2021 that said 20 women who knew him professionally had come forward with allegations of misconduct.
He denies the allegations, while GNM is defending its reporting as being both true and in the public interest.
The hearing before Mrs Justice Steyn is due to conclude in April, with a decision expected in writing at a later date.
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