Elijah Wood has spoken out about what he says is an endemic of abuse and paedophilia in Hollywood, alleging that child sex abuse is rampant, organised… and protected.
“Clearly something major was going on in Hollywood,” he said, in a new interview with the Sunday Times. “It was all organised. There are a lot of vipers in this industry, people who only have their own interests in mind. There is darkness in the underbelly — if you can imagine it, it’s probably happened.
“What upsets me about these situations is that the victims can’t speak as loudly as the people in power. That’s the tragedy of attempting to reveal what is happening to innocent people: they can be squashed but their lives have been irreparably damaged.”
Wood – who arrived in Hollywood aged eight – said he was “lucky” to escape his childhood unharmed, a fact that he says essentially comes down to the protection from his mother, Debra.
“She was far more concerned with raising me to be a good human than facilitating my career,” he said. “I never went to parties where that kind of thing was going on. This bizarre industry presents so many paths to temptation. If you don’t have some kind of foundation, typically from family, then it will be difficult to deal with.”
He compared the systematic abuse and subsequent culture of silence as similar to British entertainer Jimmy Savile, against whom accusations of child abuse were only levelled after his death.
To speak to someone about child abuse – either to access trained counsellors, raise concerns about children you know, advice on how to act, or to speak up about past abuse – call the National Child Abuse hotline on 1800 99 10 99.