Report: Director Cary Fukunaga accused of grooming young women on set

Director Cary Fukunaga has found himself the subject of a disturbing report that seems to suggest that the filmmaker has engaged in inappropriate workplace behavior that involves abusing his power on set and grooming young women and entering into relationships with them.

Per Rolling Stone, anonymous sources from the production of the upcoming AppleTV+ miniseries Masters of the Air, on which Fukanaga serves as director, have said that he has engaged in an “absolute, clear cut abuse of power” when interacting with young female actresses and crew members.

One of the bigger accusations is that Fukunaga allegedly groomed now-23-year-old actress and skateboarder Rachelle Vinberg. The director met Vinberg when she was 18 and she took to social media earlier this month to share a filtered selfie with Fukanaga that had a caption that read, “I spent years being scared of him. Man’s a groomer and has been doing shit for years. Beware, women.” Vinberg later reposted Fukunaga’s pro-choice Instagram Story following the leak of the Supreme Court draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade. She clearly thought his support was for show or thought it rang false due to his alleged behavior. In response, Vinberg said “So he posted this today and it pisses me off ’cause he literally doesn’t care about women. He only traumatizes the. I’ve spoken to many girls. F*ck you, Cary.”

The actress revealed that she met Fukunaga just a day after turning 18 at a casting call when a casting director approached her at a skatepark to audition for a Samsung commercial that Fukunaga was directing. She went on to say that the director would ask her to pretend she was his niece when they were out in public together. Fukunaga’s attorney Michael Plonsker issued a statement that the director “had a brief and consensual romantic relationship with [Vingberg] that has ended.” He also alleged that Vinberg’s claims come from her being “clearly not happy that Mr. Fukunaga, but as everyone knows, relationships end all of the time and many times one person or (or both) are unhappy.”

Vinberg isn’t the only person to come out and speak against Fukunaga. Maniac twin sister actresses Cailin Loesch and Hannah Loesch have earlier shared their story about how the director engaged them in a relationship that spanned years after they met him when they were 20 on a Netflix series. The sisters said, “We were not raped, fired from a job, or made to do anything physical against our will. So why does it sting so bad now to see this man, the one who we willingly walked away from, propped up as the honorable creator who brought a much-needed, ‘feminist twist’ to an iconic film franchise?” The franchise in question was the last James Bond effort, No Time To Die, which many have pointed out made the women in the film less objects of desire when compared to other Bond films.

The Rolling Stone piece goes into even more detail and, at this point, this is merely a report but it will interesting to see how this all plays out. The claims about his behavior on the AppleTV+ miniseries were also refuted by his lawyer by saying, “There is nothing salacious about pursuing friendships or consensual romantic relationships with women. No one ever — not once — voiced such sentiments to” Fukunaga over harassment claims. He creates a work environment that is creative, collaborative, and welcoming to all.”

What are YOUR thoughts on the reports about Cary Fukunaga’s alleged behavior on set?