William Hurt “Abusive,” Says Marlee Matlin

Damages actor William Hurt has always had a reputation for difficulty on set, but former girlfriend/co-star Marlee Matlin is accusing him of a whole lot more. The pair started dating while filming Children Of A Lesser God in 1985 (“We had an affair that night, the last day of the audition. We were together for two years”) and, as she told Access Hollywood, things quickly turned dark.

I always had fresh bruises everyday, and if I had a split lip, or if… I mean, there were a lot of things that happened that were not pleasant….The drugs took over my life, took over my brain. I was 19 and I was alone in New York City. I had no friends there except my drug dealer…

Matlin describes their arguments in her new book, I’ll Scream Later, including one that sounds a lot like rape (“[Hurt] ripped off her clothes while she sobbed, ‘No, no, no. Please Bill, no’”). The book also details her relationships with Rob Lowe and Richard Dean Anderson, as well as her stints in rehab and on Dancing With The Stars. Matlin, who is deaf, won an Academy Award for Lesser God in 1986.

Hurt, who won an Oscar the previous year for Kiss Of The Spider Woman, has been married and divorced twice. He has yet to respond to Matlin’s accusations. Says Matlin. “He knows what happened, I know what happened. We both were there.”