Marina Sirtis Alleges Harassment by Michael Winner

Star Trek actress Marina Sirtis has claimed she was sexually harassed by the late British film director Michael Winner, as she recalled her horrific experience working with him. 

Marina, 71, best known for her role as Counselor Deanna Troi on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, first worked with Michael on the 1983 film The Wicked Lady.

But the star does not have fond memories of working with Michael and claims he made her ‘lie topless on the concrete floor freezing for five hours during filming’ after feeling blackmailed into taking the role.

Speaking on The Show People podcast, Marina told host Andrew Keates: ‘That man… I hope he’s on a spit in hell as we speak. He was a misogynist, and he was cruel.

‘I did The Wicked Lady for him. I was about 26. I was doing Rocky Horror in Milan and I got a call from my agent saying, “Michael Winner has offered you another job: Death Wish 3”. I said, “Pass, I’m not doing Death Wish 3. I’ve seen Death Wish, and it’s disgusting.” So, as far as I was concerned, it was done. 

‘Then I got a call from my agent saying, “Marina please do this part because he’s threatening to sue us if you don’t, saying that we verbally agreed that you would play the role, and although he would never win the case, he would drag us through the courts and although he will never win, it’ll cost us a fortune. We’ll do everything we can to protect you.” So I was kind of blackmailed into playing the part.

‘I decided I would call Equity and see if they would protect me. I said, “There is a nude scene, and I’m a bit worried about it.” Their attitude at first was, “Oh, here’s another actress. She’s said she’ll do it, and now she’s trying to back out”.

Marina recalls that when Equitsy learned the film was Death Wish 3 they agreed to be in attendance when filming nude scenes.

She added: ‘That scene was never on the schedule. And then one morning, he said, “We’re filming that scene now”. So I immediately called Equity. We were filming in Lambeth. They got down there really quickly, actually.

‘I’ve gone topless on the beach. The girls can come out, I don’t care. But the bottom half, I was like, “No, no, no’”. Wardrobe and I made this nappy that we stuck on with double-sided tape. Michael was like, “I need to see naked on the side”. So I am lying on concrete for five hours. I was freezing.

‘At one point, the cinematographer came and put his coat over me, and Michael said, “Get that effing coat off her, who put that effing coat on her”. I was drinking endless cups of tea to keep warm. I was dying to go to the loo. As I rushed off to the loo, when I was out of earshot, Michael shouted on his megaphone, “And she wasn’t even good in bed”.

'So I do hope he’s rotting in hell as we speak, I really do.'

Marina is not the first actress to come forward about Michael’s inappropriate behaviour.

In 2017, soap stars Debbie Arnold and Cindy Marshall-Day told how Michael allegedly demanded to see their naked breasts.

Debbie from EastEnders and Cindy of Crossroads say they decided to come forward after rape allegations made against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.

At the time, Debbie told This Morning's Amanda Holden and Ben Shephard that in her early 20s, she was invited to Winner's house for an audition, which was normal for the time.

She was then taken to an office to meet him, before he allegedly told her: 'Right, I'd like you to go over by the window, I'd like to see you in the light. Now I'd like you to take off your top, and then take off your bra, and massage your breasts.'

She added that he asked her three times, before she was 'very rude' to him and left – as he claimed he would report her to her agent and actors' union Equity.

But Michael is said to have later insisted he had played a trick on Debbie to see how she would react, and that she had coped with it brilliantly.

Cindy added: 'It was just shocking what the man did to young actresses - and it was a modus operandi. He asked me to take my top off.'

Debbie said she was invited to Michael’s home in the early 1980s after he got in touch with her mother Mary, who was her theatrical agent.

Although she was not trying out for a specific role, she hoped the meeting with the powerful film director in London would help kick-start her acting career.

She went up to the first floor of his mansion in Holland Park, where she was asked to stand by a large window so he could supposedly see her in a better light.

She told the Sunday People: 'He asked me to take off my top, then my bra, and told me to massage my breasts. I asked him to repeat the question because I thought I was hearing things.

'I started walking away from the window, and he asked me why. I told him I couldn't believe what he had said. I thought it was a joke, so I was appalled when he repeated the question. I walked right up to him and told him, “f*** off, you dirty old pervert”.

She said she felt too scared to go to the police as she feared it would wreck her career, but added: 'It doesn't matter that he is dead, he still needs to be exposed.'

When asked about the allegations at the time, Michael’s widow, Geraldine, who married him two years before his death, said: 'I feel any story you print would be untrue.'

Michael died at his home in Holland Park in January 2013, aged 77, from liver disease.

His wife Geraldine confirmed his death and said in a statement: ‘Michael was a wonderful man, brilliant, funny, and generous. A light has gone out in my life.’