Earlier this 12 months, a Fb publish unfold like wildfire by the Texas movie neighborhood. It was the account of a younger actress, alleging that Adam Donaghey, a rising producer within the area, had raped her when she was 16. Donaghey, who has denied the allegation, was subsequently arrested in late April on suspicion of sexual assault of a minor, and is at the moment free on bail. The Dallas Police Division wouldn’t present any additional info.
Donaghey, 39, was a ubiquitous presence within the rising Dallas film scene. A wealthy childhood buddy of the director David Lowery (Pete’s Dragon), he had gained entrée into this world by producing Lowery’s 2009 characteristic directorial debut, St. Nick. “When Adam was introduced to the scene, he was vouched for by Lowery. A lot of credit was given to him just based on that, and a lot of people really accepted him based on that,” says native filmmaker Blair Rowan.
He went on to co-found the Oak Cliff Movie Pageant in Dallas, in addition to shepherd the re-launch of the famed Texas Theatre, which quickly grew to become the go-to spot for film-industry locals to mingle. A collection of low-budget options adopted till Lowery introduced him again to provide A Ghost Story. The movie, starring Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck (who has his personal sordid historical past), was a vital hit and immediately made Donaghey a scorching commodity. (Lowery tells The Every day Beast that he was “blindsided” by the rape allegation and “heartbroken” over it, and that the incident in query occurred earlier than A Ghost Story.)
Enter Cinestate. Based in 2016 by former Hollywood expertise supervisor Dallas Sonnier, the Dallas-based studio sought to make “populist entertainment” for the Trump-friendly crowd lengthy ignored by Hollywood. “If we can make a movie that does not treat them as losers, or ask how dare they vote a certain way, or pander to them, naturally they’re going to respond in a positive way,” Sonnier informed The Wall Road Journal. In December of final 12 months, The Ringer revealed a glowing longform characteristic on the corporate with the title, “Does the Movie Industry Need an Unsafe Space?”
And, with movies like Bone Tomahawk, Brawl in Cell Block 99, and Dragged Throughout Concrete, the latter a morality play urging sympathy for a racist cop, performed by Mel Gibson, who beats down harmless black of us, in addition to the launch of the right-wing web site Rebeller, its raison d’être was clear.
When Cinestate joined forces with Donaghey in 2017, handing him producing duties on quite a few its style movies—The Standoff at Sparrow Creek, VFW and Satanic Panic amongst them—it was met with a raised eyebrow by many within the Texas movie scene, who have been effectively conscious of Donaghey’s popularity as a serial predator.
“The first time I was ever on set I was warned about Adam Donaghey,” a feminine filmmaker tells me. “I was told he was the Harvey Weinstein of Dallas.”
The Every day Beast has spoken to greater than 30 folks inside the Texas movie scene, from administrators to actors to PAs, who say that Donaghey’s penchant for sexual harassment and labor violations was frequent data. (Many of those folks have requested anonymity, fearing skilled retaliation.)
Cristen Leah Haynes first started telling mates about her horrifying encounter with Donaghey instantly after it occurred, on July 25, 2014. They have been nearing the top of manufacturing on the indie movie Occupy Texas when Donaghey, the road producer, requested that Haynes, who was serving within the artwork division, journey with him to a different location. Since she was simply 21 years outdated and new to the {industry}, Haynes obliged.
“We start driving over there and we get there before everybody else. And the whole way there, he’s coming on to me, and it was very blunt. Show me your underwear—not even a question in the beginning, just a statement, like he thought it was OK to say,” Haynes tells The Every day Beast. “I said, ‘I hope you’re joking, but no, that’s OK, thanks.’ But he kept going, so that’s when I pulled my phone out and decided that I should document what was happening in case I got fired after that, or in case he started doing something physically.”
Within the audio, which Haynes supplied to The Every day Beast, you possibly can hear Donaghey repeatedly harass her, first requesting to see her underwear after which asking if he can penetrate her digitally. “He kept going. I kept kind of laughing it off, trying to ease the tension,” Haynes recollects.
Here’s a temporary transcript of a part of the change:
Donaghey: Come on, only for a second…it’s not an enormous deal!
Haynes: I really feel like…it virtually wouldn’t be that unhealthy if you happen to weren’t making an attempt to commerce for it.
Donaghey: I’m not making an attempt to commerce for it. I simply need to see your underwear. That’s all.
Haynes: Yeah…I’m not getting something out of that. I wouldn’t need to do this.
Donaghey: You simply stated…maintain on a sec! You simply stated one thing like, it wouldn’t be an enormous deal if you happen to weren’t making an attempt to commerce, and then you definitely’re saying, effectively, I’m not getting something out of that.
Haynes: Effectively yeah, as a result of it’s not what I need to do. Why would I do it if it’s not one thing I need to do?
Donaghey: What do you need to do? What do you need to get out of it?
Haynes: Nothing! I don’t need to do it! It’s like saying, I’m going to shoot you within the foot. Effectively, what do I get out of it? Precisely, you don’t get something out of it, however I get to shoot you within the foot.
Donaghey: Effectively, there’s loads that you would get out of me.
Haynes: Oh, like what?
Donaghey: I’ll make you cum.
Haynes: No.
Donaghey: Even with simply my fingers.
Haynes: No.
Donaghey: With no reciprocation.
Haynes: That’s terrible.
“I think he was aware of his position. He’s a big line producer who signs the checks, and he’s pretty much my job security, so he has the power to say, ‘You’re fired.’ He knew that,” says Haynes, who says that Donaghey provided her a place as “set dresser” if she gave in to his calls for. “People will hate this, but the whole time I was thinking, ‘What kind of signals have I sent him up until now that made him think this was OK?’ It just kind of made me sick to my stomach. Just the balls on this guy, you know?”
In response to Haynes, she reported it to her one confidant on set, the primary assistant director. “I remember him saying, ‘Oh God, I wish I didn’t know that.’ And that’s when I was like, well, the one person that I know that can do something about it is unable to.” (The AD didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark.)
She additionally confided in her buddy Jeff Walker, a neighborhood Dallas filmmaker, who confirms to The Every day Beast that Haynes informed him of the harassment episode “around the time that it happened” in 2014. A whisper marketing campaign started on movie units, with feminine crew members being warned that “Adam was a creep and to stay away from him,” as one particular person put it. “It’s a freelance culture and there’s a lot of fear that you’ll never work again, so it’s difficult for people to talk about,” explains Walker.
Then, in December 2016, shortly after the election of Donald Trump, Haynes performed the audio for a number of producers on the wrap social gathering for the movie Jules of Mild and Darkish, a homosexual love story the place Haynes served as second assistant director. (Two producers affirm to The Every day Beast that they heard it then.) “It became really common knowledge,” says Walker, with filmmakers sharing the audio with each other. “People would say, ‘Let me play this for you before hiring this person,’” provides Don Swaynos, a neighborhood producer.
“I just wanted to create an awareness, hoping that the people that do hire him would stop and that he would kind of slowly make his way out of the industry,” says Haynes. Additionally, she feared being iced out of initiatives because of Donaghey’s appreciable attain. “I’ve actually had a producer tell a close coworker of mine that they will not hire me because I am linked to this ‘scandal,’ which was shocking and alienating for me.”
Simply after she launched the audio, Donaghey reached out to Haynes by telephone for what she describes as a weak apology. “As soon as the audio circulated in 2016, he called me on the phone and tried to apologize. And I responded, saying there really wasn’t much he could do at this point,” says Haynes. “This is years after the fact and you’re only apologizing because somebody has said something, and because there’s proof.” Throughout their dialog, Haynes recollects him asking her, “What do we have to do to make this go away?”
“There were multiple moments of that same feeling that I had when I first told somebody—a kind of sickening helplessness of, well, this is just how the industry goes and people will just turn a blind eye to it.”
“I did say if there’s something that you would like to do, you could leave the industry in this area, or leave the industry everywhere and find something else to do so I can go about my life and not have to worry about this. But he declined,” she says. (When reached by e mail, Donaghey informed The Every day Beast, “I can tell you that as soon as I got word of it, I called Cristen and made what I realized was a veiled attempt at an apology. I was upset and in retrospect, probably made things worse by not thinking through my approach… There was never a formal complaint made and I always felt it was a private matter that was resolved appropriately.” He declined to touch upon the rape allegation, providing, “I look forward to proving my innocence in court.”)
Watching Donaghey’s star proceed to rise within the {industry}, culminating in his partnership with Cinestate, proved deeply troubling for Haynes on condition that, as one filmmaker informed me, Cinestate has a digital “monopoly” on initiatives being made within the area. “I’m sure a lot of people weren’t dissuaded, because indie film is a tough world and if there’s someone with money and connections, they might overlook that in the pursuit of getting their movie made,” Swaynos maintains.
“There were multiple moments of that same feeling that I had when I first told somebody—a kind of sickening helplessness of, well, this is just how the industry goes and people will just turn a blind eye to it,” says Haynes.
Over a dozen folks within the Dallas movie scene, from filmmakers to producers to crew, informed The Every day Beast that two individuals who turned “a blind eye to it” have been Cinestate founder Dallas Sonnier and his producing associate Amanda Presmyk.
By 2017, when Dallas Sonnier and Amanda Presmyk started partnering with Donaghey on characteristic movies, nearly all of these within the Dallas movie scene had both heard the sexual-harassment audio, or have been conscious of its contents. “Everyone in the industry in Dallas knew about the sexual harassment of Cristen,” one filmmaker tells me. Most additionally knew a couple of collection of sexual-harassment complaints towards Donaghey throughout his time on the Texas Theatre, together with a 2013 episode the place he’s stated to have made an aggressive cross at a bartender who labored there, and two separate incidents the place he allegedly groped theatre patrons.
Barak Epstein, who re-launched the Texas Theatre (which he nonetheless runs to this present day) and co-founded the Oak Cliff Movie Pageant with Donaghey, claims he’s not conscious of any controversy aside from the one which allegedly occurred in 2013: “We were contacted about an inappropriate interaction at the Texas Theatre fueled by Adam’s drinking at the bar. We had more than one source confirm the incident and Adam was immediately banned from entry. Adam recognized his behavior and pledged to seek treatment for alcohol abuse. He was not an employee, but a legal investor, so at the time it was not fiscally possible for us to part ways.”
However Donaghey’s banishment solely lasted round six months, after which he continued to prey on folks on the theatre. It wasn’t till 2017, when filmmaker Blair Rowan pressured Epstein to do one thing about Donaghey, that they took applicable motion. “In 2017, when more rumors circulated about inappropriate behavior (not at the Texas Theatre but allegedly on a film set) we took the legal and financial steps to have him removed from the business entity,” Epstein says. (Donaghey refused to touch upon the Texas Theatre allegations.)
Ten folks have informed The Every day Beast that they reached out to both Dallas Sonnier or Amanda Presmyk to tell them of Donaghey’s historical past of unhealthy habits—together with his sexual harassment of Cristen, and the existence of the audio—and that their protestations fell on deaf ears. Additional, 4 folks allege that they personally provided up the audio to Presmyk, who declined to listen to it. “They completely swept it under the rug,” one outstanding native filmmaker tells me.
Throughout an hour-long dialog with The Every day Beast, Sonnier and Presmyk each allege that they’ve by no means heard the audio to this present day, that it was by no means provided to them, and that they merely knew “the gist” of the incident, which was first delivered to their consideration in mid-2017. “[Adam] was part of our producing team—I’m not denying that. But I confront the hypothesis that there is some scandal here, because there isn’t. I don’t always get things perfectly right but I’m always trying my best,” Sonnier tells The Every day Beast. “I have a different system of handling things that may be a little antiquated than Twitter in 2020 demands of companies and CEOs. I thought a person I knew and worked with made a pass at another person I knew and worked with, and I told him to apologize to her. I didn’t understand the severity of it. I didn’t take the time to investigate it. I’m guilty of that… portion.”
Sonnier pointed to the truth that he doesn’t reside in Dallas and that he was very busy operating his firm because the the reason why he by no means a lot as sought out the audio, though it has been circulated extensively inside the Texas movie world. He additionally criticized Haynes for not submitting an official sexual-harassment grievance, and repeatedly characterised the allegations towards him and his studio as “performative” and “partisan.”
“We’re under siege right now,” says Sonnier. “Everyone involved has their own personal vendettas against us. They have a history of harassing us and having problems with us. It feels like a targeted hit, and it feels like an attack. I think people have real issues with us. They have issues with our success, with the amount of movies we’ve made and in a short time built this company to be something very special. It feels partisan.”
After I requested him to develop on his “partisan” feedback, he stated, “I think there’s a perception of politics at Cinestate, and the truth is, we are a truly diverse company… I am a complicated guy who identifies as conservative because of certain fiscal responsibilities, limited federal government, things like that. But I’m no fan of the president.”
However Haynes disagrees with Sonnier’s concept. “I’m not attacking anybody. I’m merely stating facts. I’m not out to burn Cinestate. I’m hoping that, given this information, they will evolve into something better. I don’t have any vendetta against them.” She additionally questions why, in the event that they certainly haven’t heard it, they haven’t tried to get ahold of the audio. “I feel if someone was under my employ, those things would be the first things I’d try to find out. Even to have someone suggest that someone’s done something like that, why wouldn’t you look into it? That’s just negligence,” says Haynes, including, “I question his morals and values as a company owner.”
And the issues with Cinestate prolonged far past Donaghey.
In current weeks, the author Josh Goldbloom has been sounding the alarm on Cinestate’s data of Donaghey’s harassment episode, in addition to its supposed negligence as an organization. When the information of Donaghey’s arrest broke, a Reddit thread popped up. The feedback have been quickly flooded with eye-opening testimonials from crew members on Cinestate productions alleging poor remedy.
“Three crew members have alleged to The Daily Beast that during production of Cinestate’s grindhouse horror film VFW, which was released in February of this year, the veteran actor Fred Williamson groped an assistant costume designer during a wardrobe fitting.”
Three crew members have alleged to The Every day Beast that in manufacturing of Cinestate’s grindhouse horror movie VFW, which was launched in February of this 12 months, the veteran actor Fred Williamson groped an assistant costume designer throughout a wardrobe becoming. “About 10 minutes into our fitting he reached out for her backside and she scooted out of the way. The more she scooted, the more he extended his hand. It was unbelievable. We awkwardly tried to laugh it off,” a crewmember who witnessed the incident tells The Every day Beast. “He was reaching to grab my ass or slap my ass after some quick comment I don’t recall exactly regarding my backside,” the sufferer, who needs to stay nameless, says. (Williamson informed The Every day Beast, “If this is the way people wanna go and get popular or get famous or get noticed, this is going to be tough for every male actor or director in the business. I’m sorry she feels that anything happened that was inappropriate, but it certainly didn’t come from me.”)
Each the sufferer and the crewmember say that the groping try, which occurred two days earlier than filming started, was reported to Amanda Presmyk, who informed them she’d speak to Williamson. However he remained on the movie with no additional rationalization till, a number of weeks into manufacturing, a feminine crewmember stop within the costume and wardrobe division after allegedly receiving a barrage of sexual overtures from Williamson. 4 crew members say that Sonnier and Presmyk then held an on-set assembly with the crew the place they defined that they couldn’t exchange Williamson, and that girls on set ought to abide by a “buddy system” when coping with Williamson.
“I don’t know the extent of any allegation because none was ever filed, and because the person involved has chosen not to call me back,” Sonnier maintains. “Nobody ever told me they saw him grope anyone. I sat down with them and I said, hey guys, it would cost me hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars if we had to fire an actor [during] shooting, so I’m seeking a conversation with you all to bless a plan with me that we all feel good about.”
Presmyk provides, “The only thing I have ever been aware of on VFW is that Fred Williamson said something off-color or very uncomfortable toward [redacted] and she elected to leave, and then it was brought to us.”
After I informed Presmyk that quite a few crew members had come ahead to inform me in regards to the groping incident, she confessed that she was conscious of that as effectively. “Yeah, frankly, um… it wasn’t something that stood out in my mind until you mention it just now. I remember being texted and saying, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry to hear that. Let’s talk about it.’” She says she remembers it being extra “lighthearted in nature, in terms of ‘gross old man,’ that kind of thing, and us commiserating as women.”
On prime of the sexual-harassment prices, six crew members on VFW and Satanic Panic accuse Cinestate of constructing them work oppressively lengthy hours—generally 18-hour days—with no extra time pay, and that Donaghey, a producer on each movies, constantly pressured crew members into being drastically underpaid both by inputting much less hours on their time playing cards or asking them to show down extra time. “At that point, it’s a safety issue,” one crewmember on Satanic Panic says. “When you hire someone who has been accused of sexually assaulting someone, and you put them in charge of writing checks for everyone in your entire company, are you not giving that person power to abuse further—whether sexually or through forced labor?”
Along with signing the checks, which gave him an excessive amount of energy over crew members, quite a few individuals who’ve labored with Donaghey inform The Every day Beast that he was recognized to threaten folks’s careers in the event that they didn’t give in to his calls for. “Adam was the kind of guy that threatened people,” filmmaker Jeff Walker says. “He’d make threats like, ‘You’ll never fuckin’ work in this town again.’ It was like he wanted to be Harvey Weinstein.”
Two crew members on Satanic Panic additionally allege that the actress Ruby Modine (daughter of Matthew) was pressured by Donaghey into performing a intercourse scene with an obsessed fanboy.
“The guy that was cast didn’t show up. Ruby [Modine] confessed to me that the PA that picked her up from the airport was saying, ‘Oh my gosh, my roommate is so in love with you, and we’re really excited that you’re here.’ It ended up being that the guy they replaced this character with was the fan, so she was forced to do a sex scene with the guy who was a fan of hers,” a crew member tells The Every day Beast. “She protested it to myself, to Amanda, and to Adam. I told them that she didn’t feel comfortable with it and he needed to talk to her about it, and Adam said, ‘I don’t care what she says, we’re going to shoot our movie,’ and walked out of the room.”
“It rubbed me the wrong way,” the crewmember provides. “She ended up doing this scene with a guy who was a fan of hers, who could have been pleasurized by the scene. It was wrong, and obscene.” (Modine declined to remark; Donaghey couldn’t be reached for remark; Presmyk, whereas acknowledging the rent, says, “It has never been expressed to me directly that there was any particular discomfort with the scene”; Satanic Panic director Chelsea Stardust alleges she was “completely unaware of Adam’s behavior and history until a few weeks ago,” and that “no one involved with the production expressed any concerns to me about Adam’s involvement.”)
The scene stays within the movie.
Cinestate lastly minimize ties with Donaghey within the wake of his arrest. They’ve additionally introduced a collection of measures to make sure on-set security. “We’re trying to fix this moving forward. We’re trying to make the sets a safer place,” Sonnier tells me. “We have put together a really awesome all-female task force that has many advocates, policy attorneys, Dallas crew members, female producers. They’re putting together a series of standards and procedures and a code of conduct to do in these situations.”
He provides, “We want Cinestate to be the gold standard of safety for women moving forward.”
Sonnier additionally formally apologized to Haynes in an e mail to her dated Could 27, simply because the Reddit menace started choosing up steam:
When requested whether or not the corporate would cease working with Fred Williamson, nevertheless, he couldn’t say. “I don’t know. I’m not gonna fuckin’ trash Fred Williamson right now without all the facts,” Sonnier stated, earlier than elevating his voice to a yell: “People are saying my words are reactionary. You’re goddamn right they are! I’m trying to make my sets a safer place!”
Those that’ve labored with Cinestate up to now aren’t fully satisfied that the brand new measures might be sufficient.
“As for the way that Cinestate is supporting women in film, three out of four of us from my costume department on VFW have decided to never work in film again. It’s been disgusting,” a crewmember tells The Every day Beast. “I truly hope speaking about this leads to a more open conversation so that the film industry can actually be nurturing of its creatives instead of being so regularly exploitative and dehumanizing.”
Haynes is skeptical as effectively. In February of this 12 months, whereas working as a second assistant director on the Cinestate movie Until Demise, she says she was groped by one other line producer whereas a number of crew members have been casually lounging in a scorching tub. (Two crew members corroborated her model of occasions to The Every day Beast.)
“We were in the hot tub in conversation and the line producer comes over to me, grabs the small of my back, and grabs really close into my inner thigh, toward him, and says, ‘Let’s dance.’ I really hoped he’d been drinking because he hadn’t acted like this until now. I said, ‘Nobody’s dancing,’ and then he did it again, to the point where the gaffer had to come over and see what was up, and then he saw what he was doing,” says Haynes. (Each Sonnier and Presmyk say they have been “unaware” of the Until Demise incident.)
To make issues worse, Donaghey was a producer on Until Demise. Though Haynes had turned down a number of jobs on Donaghey movies since being harassed, she says the provide was too good to cross up, and that the manufacturing supervisor had assured her that she could be stored distant from Donaghey and never have any interactions with him, which she didn’t. Whereas Sonnier alleges that he checked in with Haynes previous to capturing to see if she’d be OK working with Donaghey once more, she says “that never happened.”
“There was no ‘come to peace’ moment with anyone in production,” she says. “I was hired, put in a room—not too far from Adam’s—and nobody mentioned anything. Nobody came to see if I was OK.”
