Bella Thorne has spoken out about a director who accused her of "flirting" with him when she was just 10 years old.
The 25-year-old appeared on Emily Ratajkowski's podcast High Low to describe her experiences of being sexualized and shamed as an adolescent growing up in the spotlight.
Thorne explained that she had been in a director session, where she read her lines for the director of an upcoming project when he accused her of "flirting with him" and making him "feel uncomfortable."
She said that she "still go[es] back" to the interaction "every day," and that it drives her "crazy." "I … am trying to find almost fault in myself," she added, saying: "Like, 'What did you do, Bella? What did you do? You made him feel like this.'"
Though, the former Disney Channel actress says she had to remind herself that, at age 10, she was "not the problem." Thorne then told Ratajkowski: "I don't give a f**k what the f**k I said.
"I don't care if I said, 'Eat my p***y right now. [I was] 10 years old. Why ever would you think that [I was flirting]?"
“Also you're in a director session, you can't really say or do anything. You do the scene, you say hello and you walk out. There is no time to go sit on your lap or make you uncomfortable," she concluded.
Ratajkowski, 31, then reassured the actress and singer that she needs to "forgive" herself because at the time she was just "a f**king kid."
"If you need a more f**ked-up story of Hollywood and paedophilia and the sexualisation of children, I don't think there is one," she stated.
The model and author then recalled her own experience of being sexualized as a model by her agent at the age of 16, telling Thorne: "They pointed to my picture, and I was with my friend who was also modelling at the time with the same agency, and they were like, 'This face. This is how we know this girl gets f**ked. You've got to give a lesson, Emily, on this.'"
Fans of Thorne have since commented on the shocking nature of the director's complaints against the then-10-year-old, with one person writing: "Nothing is shocking now. That's how power works, f**king patriarchal leverage. A 10 year kid makes him uncomfortable??? There's something in his head. Gosh this world is [...]."
The actress has previously been open about being sexually abused from the age of six, posting about her experiences on Instagram in solidarity with the #TimesUp movement.
"I was sexually abused and physically growing up from the day I can remember till I was 14..when I finally had the courage to lock my door at night and sit by it. All damn night. Waiting for someone to take advantage of my life again. Over and over I waited for it to stop and finally it did," she wrote.
"But some of us aren't as lucky to get out alive. Please today stand up for every soul Mistreated [sic]," Thorne added.