Bill and Ted star Alex Winter says sexual abuse as a child actor was 'hellish' but Keanu Reeves 'had his back'
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Alex Winter has described the impact of being abused as a young boy.
The Bill and Ted actor - who played Bill alongside Keanu Reeves’ Ted - admitted that he wasn’t able to tell his "potentially dangerous secret" at the time.
" It’s hellish, to be totally frank. You know, it’s hellish," he told BBC 5 live.
But he explained that playing the larger-than-life Bill S. Esquire in the 1987 was "therapeutic" for him.
"For me personally, in terms of the experience, you know, it was an opportunity to just be child-like, and play, and [be] innocent and sweet, and it was really, really helpful for me mentally. And it was a great environment," he said.
(Image: BBC)
(Image: MGM)
"Keanu and I were close. The director, and all of us, were close, the producers, we were, we all very young, we all had each other’s backs. It was a very safe, familial environment," he continued.
He explained that abuse was a "taboo" in the 1980s and 90s but now Hollywood has a "very different culture".
He admitted that in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, society has changed and now there is a "lot more freedom" to talk about abuse.
"I didn't feel that I had any place of safety to unlock an extremely sensitive and potentially dangerous secret," he said.
(Image: REX Features)
He explained: "Because I was a kid, had I been older, had I had more resources, had I had, I had... right?
"Every victim goes through this whether they're a child or an adult rape victim, you go through this over and over again and all of that was irrelevant because I only had the resources that I had, I only had the abilities I had and it was absolutely taboo in the popular vernacular so I didn't feel that I had any place of safety to unlock an extremely sensitive and potentially dangerous secret.
"Because there is a power dynamic that does put you in a position where you're afraid for your own safety so there's that on top of the taboo nature of being public.
(Image: Jane O'neal/Warner Bros./Getty Images)
"Had I existed in a culture like the one that's happening at this moment, I mean that's a very different culture, if you feel like that sort of thing is now being spoken about in a much more open and accepting way on a societal level, it gives you a lot more freedom to just tell anybody.
"Even if it's just because usually you're not telling anybody, I mean nobody and that's a very dangerous place to be in mentally."