Brow Beat

Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard Fires His Agent After Sexual Assault Allegations Surface, And His Agency Follows Suit

Finn Wolfhard attends the Hollywood Reporter and SAG-AFTRA Emmy Nominees Night on Sept. 14.

Rich Fury/Getty Images for THR

Finn Wolfhard, the 14-year-old actor of It and Stranger Things fame, has fired his agent, Tyler Grasham, and left his agency, APA, after two men came forward with allegations that Grasham sexually assaulted them, Deadline reports. The allegations surfaced on Monday when filmmaker and former child star Blaise Godbe Lipman posted an account alleging that Grasham plied him with alcohol and sexually assaulted him during what was ostensibly a business meeting. Lipman did not originally mention Grasham by name, but wrote that “people poured out of the woodwork in private message, aware of who I must be talking about,” and after Grasham “poked” the actor on Facebook, he decided to speak out:

The “poke” reminded me about Tyler’s harassment after the ordeal. He told me I’d never work in this biz. He’d have his friends drunkenly call me and berate me. I didn’t do anything at the time. I was young and desperately wanted acceptance within my industry. His threats felt very real. Although my initial reaction yesterday and today was to not make this about me, there’s no better time. Tyler Grasham is still working at APA, where he’s been representing children and teenagers for the last ten years since this happened.

Lipman says that Grasham allegedly assaulted him the summer he turned 18, a decade ago. After seeing his post, film editor Lucas Ozarowski came forward with a similar story alleging Grasham groped him in January 2016. Ozarowski, who wants to pursue criminal charges, contacted Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer about it; the city attorney’s office advised him to begin by filing a report with the LAPD, which Deadline reports he says he has now done.

Meanwhile, APA, where Grasham has been an agent since 2005, announced on Friday morning that it was putting him on a leave of absence while an independent third party conducted an investigation. It must have been a pretty quick investigation, because it announced he had been “terminated, effective immediately” in only a few hours’ time. During those few hours, both Wolfhard and Cameron Boyce, the star of Disney’s Descendants movies, very publicly fired Grasham. Friday afternoon, Lipman wrote about the entertainment industry’s culture of open secrets:

The industry protects its own. That is an undeniable fact.

Like Harvey, everyone knew about Tyler’s reputation. If you claim you didn’t, I lovingly ask you to pull your head out of your ass because your faux surprise serves no purpose except to ease your own embarrassment for standing in silence.

But please don’t worry, many of us were silent with you.

We shrugged and we kept going because we all want to get our movies green-lit, or to get hired for that next show, or for our clients to book that next job.

It’s only when these incidents are made public, outside of the system that protects itself, that these predators see repercussions.

But although Lipman hopes the aftermath of Harvey Weinstein’s fall from power will lead to positive changes in the entertainment industry, he doesn’t want people to lose sight of the larger picture.  “Remember,” he wrote, “the Grashams and Weinsteins are a small component of the problem. Don’t forget for one second who we have in the White House.”

Update, Oct. 22, 2017: This article originally misspelled Cameron Boyce’s last name.

Read more in Slate about Harvey Weinstein.