Emily Ratajkowski’s new book, “My Body,” details her experiences as she built her career in the industry. She gets real about the downside of having a career that is inextricably tied up with her body and her experience.
Among the revelations in the book sees Emily opening up about her experience with Robin Thicke on the set of the “Blurred Lines” music video. Emily appears naked in a version of the video, which was also her breakout vehicle into the entertainment scene. In the book, she revealed that Robin groped her while filming the video:
“Suddenly, out of nowhere, I felt the coolness and foreignness of a stranger’s hands cupping my bare breasts from behind. I instinctively moved away, looking back at Robin Thicke.
He smiled a goofy grin and stumbled backward, his eyes concealed behind his sunglasses. My head turned to the darkness beyond the set. [The director, Diane Martel’s] voice cracked as she yelled out to me, ‘Are you okay?’ I pushed my chin forward and shrugged, avoiding eye contact, feeling the heat of humiliation pump through my body. I didn’t react – not really, not like I should have.”
Now, Emily is opening up on why she decided to include that experience in her book. In an appearance on The View, the 30-year-old model stated:
“I think that the important thing about that story and that essay is that the set was filled with women. It was an incredible female director, cinematographer. I actually had a really good time. I was having a lot of fun, compared to other jobs I was doing at 20. This was a group of women, I was dancing around, I was being goofy.”
She also addressed the backlash that the video received when it was released in 2013:
“That video got a lot of criticism. When it was criticized when I was 21, I was really defiant and said, ‘Actually, I had a good time. It was empowering.’ That just wasn’t the whole reality of the story.
I think that that’s a perfect example of why I decided to include it in the book. It just exemplifies what I’m trying to say: it can be both. It can be both an incredibly fun experience, it brought me fame, it brought me success.
There was also a moment where nobody could say anything. We were a bunch of women who were working and easily replaceable. I knew that there was a younger, prettier girl who would happily do the music video instead of me. It’s the reason I’m here, in some ways. It’s the reason so many people are hopefully going to read this book. It’s complicated, and I was scared of people just making it about a sexual assault allegation and not really listening to the whole story. I hope people read the whole essay.”
