Grace Van Dien might’ve only appeared in three episodes of Stranger Things 4, but she made a huge impact on fans of the Netflix hit thanks to her winning turn as the ill-fated Chrissy Cunningham. This promised to serve as the star’s big break, with viewers eager to see her in a variety of other projects. Unfortunately, Van Dien has shocked her supporters with the revelation that she’s currently not focusing on her acting career after an unknown movie producer’s sexual misconduct.
Van Dien recently explained during a Twitch stream that she is focusing on that side of her career for the foreseeable as she’s found herself “turning down acting projects” after the incident in question which happened on “one of the last movies [she] did.” When opening up about her reasons for switching to Twitch streaming, Van Dien said:
“The fact of the matter is, the last few projects I’ve worked on, I didn’t have the best experiences. One of the last movies I did, one of the producers hired a girl he was sleeping with and he had her ask me to have a threesome with them. So, like… That’s my boss. And I didn’t [do it], and I cried and I was so upset.”
Van Dien explained that this has soured acting for her so much that she has “turned down four movies” in the past two and a half weeks. The actress — who is part of an acting dynasty, as the daughter of Sleepy Hollow star Casper Van Dien and the great-granddaughter of Hollywood legend Robert Mitchum — added that streaming is proving to be much more beneficial to her mental health at this juncture.
“But when people are like, ‘How is streaming better for your mental health?’ That’s how,” she said. “I get to stay inside my home and play video games, and I don’t have my boss asking me to have sex with him. That’s how this is better for my mental health.”
As for the incident itself, Van Dien maintained that she “handled it the right way” by informing her management. The actress likewise stressed that she had the support of a co-star. A return to the acting world is not being ruled out, however, as Van Dien elaborated that she’s working on developing her own projects and is currently seeking out funding.
“I’m happy here, and I’m developing my own projects,” she said. “I’m hoping that someone decides to fund them because then I can be in control of my own set, and I’m not gonna ask my actors to sleep with me.”
In addition to Stranger Things 4, Grace Van Dien also starred in numerous movies released in 2022, including The Fix, V for Vengeance, and What Comes Around.