Hugo Metsers is temporarily resigning from his job at the actor training program Faaam, which he founded. He says he is shocked that students recently accused him of sexually transgressive behaviour.
Last Saturday accused former students the 53-year-old actor of sexual harassment in de Volkskrant. As a teacher, he would have crossed boundaries, especially in the ‘Functional Nude’ course. “We all knew: if there were no nudes to be seen, you would get an unsatisfactory”, said a former student in the newspaper.
In a statement Metsers now says that it was never his intention to make students feel uncomfortable. He adds that he “would have wished it had been better for me at the time. I blame myself for that”.
‘Learned from the past’
He also writes that the piece contains factual inaccuracies and “a lot of description of behavior in which I do not recognize myself”. The training has also been improved in the meantime. “I have learned from the past and do everything I can to make all students feel safe.”
Metsers says to suspend all teaching activities until further notice. He also delegates his duties to the board of the study programme, auditions of new students and assessments.
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