Katherine Ryan: Comic says ‘harmful’ male co-star didn’t react when she known as him out

Katherine Ryan says she “wrestled” along with her conscience over whether or not to work with a male movie star she says she believes “was or is dangerous”.

The Canadian comic first spoke about an “open secret” within the trade again in 2022, telling fellow comedian Sara Pascoe she had confronted the alleged predator whereas filming a TV present with him.

She later reiterated her claims throughout an interview with Louis Theroux.

Ryan has by no means publicly revealed the identify of the alleged abuser, or the identify of the programme she was recording with them.

Speaking about her resolution to confront the individual, she advised Lauren Laverne on Sunday’s Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4: “I had a choice. I could go to work with someone whom I believe to be a perpetrator of sexual assault. Or I could turn down the job.”

Ryan added: “The choice is do I go to work with someone who I think is very problematic and do I stand near them and laugh and smile and look like I allowing this kind of person to still be on television or do I stay home?

“That was actually troublesome for me. That’s what I wrestled with essentially the most, as a result of I imagine that this individual was or is harmful.”

She says she “compromised,” deciding: “I’m going to go, however I’m going to let him know below no unsure phrases what I consider him.

“I’m not going to just smile and look like I’m allowing this behaviour. I’m not going to let him think that I don’t know and that everybody he works with is just going to let him get away with it.”

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She advised Laverne she had acquired “pushback” following the revelation, however mentioned folks have been asking her to provide the names of the alleged feminine victims reasonably than the male comedian himself.

She mentioned she additionally nonetheless questions herself about her resolution: “Did I do the right thing or the wrong thing? I still don’t know.”

When requested by Laverne how the unnamed man reacted, Ryan mentioned: “he didn’t have much of a reaction… He certainly didn’t have an obvious reaction”.

But she mentioned that the response from these round her had been optimistic: “People really liked what I said. I think they thought that it was funny and courageous”.

Ryan mentioned that whereas some folks could have questioned whether or not or not she was joking, she was lethal critical, telling Laverne: “Certainly the people who know, know that I wasn’t joking.”

She additionally spoke in regards to the wider comedy scene, saying that when she first began out on comedy panel present 8 Out of 10 Cats again in 2012 she “didn’t really feel intimidated by the men,” however made the choice to be her “authentic” self and “never subscribed to these ideas of what a woman should be”.