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Actress Afton Williamson, who played police officer Talia Bishop on ABC’s The Rookie, has resigned from the show due to sexual harassment, bullying and racial discrimination on the set of the show. She revealed that she has experienced racism from the head of the hair department, was bullied by executive producers and sexually harassed by a recurring male guest star on the show.

“Throughout the filming of the pilot, I experienced Racial Discrimination/Racially Charged inappropriate comments from the hair department and bullying from Executive Producers,” she captioned under a drawing of her character from the show on Instagram. “During the Season, it continued along with Sexual Harassment from a recurring guest star and the racist commentary & bullying from the Hair Dept.”

Williamson said she never remained quiet and alerted the showrunners about what she was going through and no action was taken. She said her reports were not documented and the Human Resources Department was never notified. She said nothing happened until the bullying escalated to a sexual assault. The head of the Hair Department was terminated after they sexually assaulted her at the show’s wrap party.

The 34-year-old said her cries for help when a recurring guest star sexually harassed her were unanswered as well.

“After my initial report of sexual harassment, I was assured that the actor would be fired…. This actor reappeared on our call sheet at the end of the season, I was even written in scenes with him.”

Williamson was asked to return to her role for season two and was told that all of her complaints were taken care of. When she saw that Human Resources hadn’t gotten involved yet and an investigation was never started, she left the show.

“I was asked to return this season, and promised that ‘everything was handled.’ The investigation hadn’t even begun and Season 2 had already started filming. I turned it down and I walked.”

Take a look at her post below. ABC has not yet publicly addressed Williamson’s exit from the show.

 

 

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