Gavin and Stacey star Joanna Page kidnapped by ‘taxi driver’ who threatened to strip her naked
This article contains discussion of sexual harassment which some readers may find distressing.
Joanna Page has shared more harrowing details about the kidnapping incident she suffered in South Africa, where a 'taxi driver' threatened to strip her naked.
The actress, best known for her role in the hit BBC comedy Gavin and Stacey, has opened up about a distressing experience she had while filming in South Africa back in 2005.
Page, who also appeared in some particularly uncomfortable scenes in Love Actually, found herself alone in the country and struggling to find a way back to her hotel, with a random man agreeing to take her home.
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However, things quickly turned south when she realised he wasn't heading for the hotel, and he told her that he wanted her to undress so he could take photos of her naked body.
Speaking to the Five Brilliant Things podcast, the Welsh celebrity explained how she found herself in the horrifying situation.
She said: "We were doing this costume drama for the BBC called To the Ends of the Earth.
"When I first arrived to film, some of the cast were there before me because I'm a character that comes in later.
"So I got to the hotel and they said you can't go anywhere without your chaperone.
"And I thought 'oh this is ridiculous, I'm really bored, I need to get out and about and do some stuff'.
"So I said 'can you just get me a taxi and take me to a shopping centre somewhere'.
"And they said 'we really don't think you should do this and I said 'well I want to do it'."
It turns out that the hotel was definitely right to suggest that she find herself a chaperone, as Page soon found herself lost with no way home after a day at the shopping centre.
She added: "So I went to a shopping centre, walked around for the whole day and it must have got to about 4:30 in the afternoon and then the whole atmosphere changed.
"It started feeling really menacing. I had no way of getting back to the hotel, I didn't have a car, I didn't really know where I was going.
"I remember leaving the shopping centre and there was a carpark and loads of fellas with cars everywhere.
"And I thought 'oh my God, I'm in the s***, I'm going to have to just go up to someone with a car and ask him to take me home because otherwise I'm just stuck here, I genuinely don't know what I'm going to do'.
"So I went up to this fellow and asked if he was a taxi and he said 'yes', and I said 'please will you take me back to this hotel'.
Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse when Page's driver started sexually harassing her and refusing to take her back to where she was staying.
She continued: "I got in the car and then he drove off and he drove around for about an hour and a half, telling me that he was going to take me somewhere, he was going to take off all of my clothes, and he was going to take photos of me.
"And I just remember thinking, 'Oh my God', you know how most of the time you get in dodgy situations but think you can get yourself out of it quite easily.
"But it was the only situation I think I've ever been in in my life where I thought 'you're in the s***. This is serious. You can't get yourself out of this. I don't know what I'm going to do'.
"I thought right, OK just laugh with him, make him laugh, tell some jokes, be quite saucy back with him, if he says he's going to do this, laugh back, be quite cheeky.
"So I did this for the hour and a half that he just drove me around and around and eventually he took me back to the hotel."
If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article, you can contact The National Sexual Assault Hotline on 800.656.HOPE (4673), available 24/7. Or you can chat online via online.rainn.org
Topics: Gavin And Stacey
James Moorhouse