Eliza Dushku is moving on with her life after saying in 2018 that she was molested at age 12 on the set of “True Lies” and harassed on the set of “Bull,” which she says led to her firing and subsequent settlement with CBS.
“I need the distance to recalibrate and start a family,” the actress, who’s expecting her first child with husband Peter Palandjian, told Time magazine in an interview published Tuesday.
Dushku has moved back to her hometown of Boston and has been studying holistic psychology at Lesley University.
“But I don’t want people to think coming forward means ending your career,” she said. “I could be acting. I could be in LA. I just need to be here right now.”
After the New York Times revealed she settled with the network for $9.5 million, Dushku, 38, didn’t respond to the newspaper for comment because of her non-disclosure agreement with CBS. But when she saw that both actor Michael Weatherly and producer Glenn Gordon Caron had released statements to the Times, she wrote an opinion piece in the Boston Globe.
“I declined to be interviewed for that piece because I wanted to honor the terms of my settlement with the network. I was under the impression that Weatherly and Caron would also not respond per our settlement. Instead, both commented to the Times in what amounted to more deflection, denial, and spin,” she wrote in December 2018.
During her interview with Time, Dushku was still worried talking about it could lead to more trouble.
“We’re talking in code,” she said. “NDAs re-victimize people. They give more power to the powerful. And as the less powerful person, you have to live in someone else’s f–ked-up version of reality.”
The “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” actress also said revealing what happened to her has been part of her process to move on.
“Humans need a cohesive narrative for who they are and we’re as sick as our secrets. So naming our secrets — that’s a part of healing,” Dushku said.