Ruth Wilson Says She Exited ‘The Affair’ Because She “Didn’t Feel Safe”

Ruth Wilson is addressing her The Affair departure.

In an interview with Stylist ahead of the return of her new HBO show His Dark Materials, Wilson says she left the Showtime series because there were things she “didn’t feel safe about.”

“The reason I haven’t gone into The Affair is that I haven’t worked out how to discuss it,” she told the magazine. “There’s a lot of noise and anger surrounding it, and really the power rests with me to choose how I discuss my life and my experiences.”

Wilson has long declined to discuss her reasons for leaving the drama. In 2018, she told The New York Times it wasn’t “about pay parity, and it wasn’t about other jobs, [but] I’m not really allowed to talk about it,” encouraging them to contact showrunner Sarah Treem for more: “There is a much bigger story.”

The Hollywood Reporter reported last year that Wilson departed the series following friction with Treem over the direction of her character and what multiple sources described as a “hostile work environment,” the latter of which involved a 2017 investigation by parent company CBS.

“What’s important to say is that I did speak up. I did have a voice. I did stand up for myself,” Wilson told Stylist. “There was a situation on The Affair where things didn’t feel right, and I dealt with them, and I managed to protect myself.”

She added, “It was before #MeToo and before Harvey Weinstein — and yet my instincts were very clear and strong about what I felt was wrong, about what was going on, and what I didn’t feel safe about.”

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