David Schwimmer Launches Powerful Campaign Against Sexual Harassment

david schwimmer

by Anna Vujicic |
Published on

Actor and director David Schwimmer, bestknown for his role as Ross in hit US comedy series Friends, has produced six short-films as part of a campaign titled #ThatsHarassment.

The campaign, which has gone viral on Twitter with users sharing their own stories, aims to combat sexual harassment by men against women.

The series of six films, which debuted on Monday, portray real-life events – titled The Actor, The Co-worker, The Doctor, The Boss, The Politician and The Photographer. Each film depicts how sexual harassment can take place in subtle ways and in everyday scenarios, including the workplace and the doctor’s office.

According to Sigal Avin, the Israeli-American director who wrote the short films, the campaign highlights the 'grey areas of sexual harassment.' She told Cosmopolitan: 'I realised that I really wanted to see what sexual harassment was instead of hearing about it and reading about it all the time… everything was much more violent, or unreal.'

david schwimmer
David Schwimmer appears in the #ThatsHarassment campaign ©YouTube

David Schwimmer was approached by Sigal to adapt her films to the U.S, and also features in one of the six short-films as the boss who oversteps his boundaries with a female co-worker.

Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon and Shameless's Emmy Rossum also appear in the campaign.

'The whole purpose of this is to encourage people and to give them the courage to speak out if they’re a victim themselves of harassment, or if they witness or are aware of sexual harassment,' he told Cosmopolitan.

'Every woman in my family, in my life, has been harassed… (being) constantly told that you aren't worth the same as men… or what you look like comes first — it makes a lot more sense to me that a lot of women don't even recognise when they’re being harassed.'

READ MORE: Why Do We Tolerate Sexual Harassment From Strangers?

READ MORE: #NoWomanEver: The Hashtag Exposing Everyday Street Harassment

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