Photo: Graham Bezant/Toronto Star via Getty Imagesis at the heart of a new lawsuit filed in Manhattan on April 19 that further pulls back the curtain of alleged cruelty against women at the renowned acting school. A former student alleges that then–artistic director Mitchell Nestor “raped and sexually assaulted” her in the early 1970s.
The lawsuit, filed by filed by Andrew M. Stengel under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, names the school and late founder Lee Strasberg’s wife, Anna, as defendants. Nestor is believed to be deceased. Asked for comment, the institute said it have “no comment at this time.” The former Strasberg student, referred to in court papers as “Jane Doe,” came to New York City in 1973 with ambitions of becoming an actress. After starting classes at the institute, the woman claims Nestor “controlled the conditions of Ms. Doe’s education, studies and her future as an actress.” According to the lawsuit, around early 1974, Nestor went with Doe to her Manhattan apartment “under the pretense of giving her private instruction on behalf of [the institute].
One week after this alleged attack, Nestor demanded that Doe come to his office. Doe thought she had to go as he held such a high position at the school and she felt that “he could make or break her acting career,” according to the lawsuit. When she arrived, Nestor allegedly shut the door and approached her. He then “forcefully kissed [Doe] and forced his hand into Plaintiff’s pants and he penetrated her vagina, without [Doe’s] consent, with at least one finger.
While the school has been synonymous with elite acting education since its founding in 1969, the Strasberg Institute’s manner of teaching is said to lend itself to extremes — which, some allege, extended to the institute’s treatment of women. Lee is considered the father of