Olivia Munn Reflects on Accusing Brett Ratner of Sexual Harassment in the Pre-#MeToo Era

The 2020 Democratic primary is already being dominated by women, and while most of the celebrities in attendance declined to endorse any one candidate, they had no qualms sharing their enthusiasm about so many women seeking office on the red carpet.

"I'm still waiting to see. I love them all. I particularly love Kamala [Harris], but I love them all," Felicity told POPSUGAR. But when it comes to the gendered attacks female candidates face, she added: "I haven't seen much change in how they are received. I have seen a change in that women are brave enough to put up with the onslaught — I've seen the courage level."

Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Melissa Fumero said she's also undecided about who will get her vote in 2020. "I'm in a wait-and-see place right now. I definitely was excited when Kamala Harris announced — I was hoping she would," she told us. "The fact that there are — how many now? Five? Four? — [women running], it's amazing! It's such a moment. Whatever the outcome, the fact that we have so many women in the primary going for it [shows] the conversation is changing."

Amber, who has a new book of political essays out on March 5, said she's similarly refreshed to see how EMILY's List has contributed to the current wave of female candidates and elected officials.

"They are igniting everybody and making them feel like they're part of something big," she told us, "and they're helping young women politicians get into positions of power where they've never been invited — where they've never been allowed to be."

As the panel conversation kicked off, Amber was quick to point out that Olivia had the guts to publicly out a powerful man she says sexually harassed her well before the #MeToo and Time's Up movements caught fire: director Brett Ratner. Olivia has long maintained that, around 2003, Ratner masturbated in front of her while holding a shrimp cocktail in the other hand. In 2009, she wrote a memoir and detailed the incident but didn't name Ratner for legal reasons. So she was astonished when he admitted the anecdote was about him, all the while dismissing her version of events, instead telling a reporter he "banged her" and "forgot about" her, prompting her to make up the incident for revenge. Munn said she remembers thinking: "Wow. Everyone is going to believe him . . . It was one of the toughest weekends of my life."

Olivia wouldn't back down, though. Shortly after, Ratner's movie Tower Heist was outperformed at the box office by Puss in Boots. She asked her sister to tweet something snarky about the failure referencing his quotes about her and asked other allies to back them up. "That night — I haven't told any of this story publicly — I'm in my hotel room in New York . . . and then I get this caller-ID-blocked number," she told the audience. "And I answer the phone, and it's Brett."

Olivia said he told her it was a joke that was blown out of proportion. Then, she says, he tried to goad her into saying they dated. "And at this point, I had this feeling — never confirmed — that he was recording the conversation," she recalled. He then asked if she would tweet letting people know he apologized, which she said she would do if he corrected his comments on the record.

Before they hung up, Olivia said, she told Brett that he was used to living life like he was the star of his own movie. "But the moment you came after me, you came into my world," she remembered saying. "And this isn't going to be your moment in your world, this is my moment in my world. And in my world, guys like you go home crying."

As Chicago's top prosecutor, Kim Foxx has led a number of notable charges, including mass exonerations of men imprisoned based on the testimony of a corrupt police fficer. And she made news in January when, after the premiere of Surviving R. Kelly, she publicly asked other survivors of the disgraced singer's alleged abuse to come forward. (R. Kelly is from Chicago.) While she didn't comment at length on a possible case against him — according to new reports this week, a grand jury has been convened in connection with new allegations against him — she said "it's awful."

Foxx's plea to survivors of the former R&B star was especially powerful given that she is a survivor of both childhood sexual abuse and sexual assault. At today's event, Foxx said it's important to her to "own that whole part of me" as a survivor when she goes to work. When Ling asked how she responds to those who might dismiss her as seeking justice because of her own experiences and background, she didn't flinch.

"I have a father-in-law who was killed by a drunk driver. I have a mother who was a victim of domestic violence. I grew up in public housing in Chicago. I've been the victim of the violence of poverty," Kim said. "I have an ax to grind about poverty. I have an ax to grind about systems that oppress people of color and the poor. I do."

Continue on to see more pictures of the notable attendees at today's event.