The actress, famed for her performances in ABC’s ‘’How to Get Away with Murder,’’ alleged that she was raped by a director back in her native country at the start of her career.
Karla Souza has claimed that a director raped her at the start of her career in Mexico. Still, despite revealing that she was subjected to sexual assault, the ‘’How to Get Away with Murder’’ star refused to disclose the name.
The 32-year-old star revealed the details of the shocking incident for the first time while giving an interview CNN en Español on Tuesday. Teary-eyed, she told her host Carmen Aristegui the incident happened when she was on a shoot back in her native country.
Souza explained that at first, she chose to repulse the sexual advances of the unnamed director. Later on, and after a month of the advances of the director and what Souza claims as his ‘total abuse of power’, she felt that she had no other option but to ‘give in.’
‘[I let him] kiss me, to touch me in ways I did not want him to touch me and in one of those instances, he attacked me violently and yes, he raped me.’
She further revealed that the incident happened when she had just started her career. She was living in a hotel where none of her fellow cast mates were residing, and that only she and the director had rooms in that hotel.
‘He knocked at my door saying he wanted to go over some scenes and I thought it’s 2 am, it’s not appropriate and it’s something that shouldn’t be happening,’ Souza said.
She alleges that after being repulsed the first time, the director came back but she once again refused to let him in the door.
However, Souza claims, the decision to not open the door had repercussions beyond her wildest imaginations. The next day when she went back to the set, the director suddenly started to humiliate her for no reason, and in the company of her cast mates. Souza alleges that it was that psychological control which the director enjoyed over her which forced her to give in.
This revelation has come at a time when Hollywood has been rocked by months of accusations of harassment and sexual assault, resulting in the rise of #TimesUp and #MeToo movements.
Souza is an experienced actress who has been working on television since her childhood. Her first role on TV came in 1993 when she appeared as a child performer in Aspen Extreme.
Since 2014, and after years of appearing in Spanish-language movies, she has starred alongside Viola Davis in ABC’s ‘’How to Get Away with Murder’’.
