Jessica Walter opens up on Jeffrey Tambor verbally harassing her on sets of Arrested Development

Arrested Development star Jessica Walter has spoken out about Jeffrey Tambor verbally harassing her on the sets of the show.

In an interview with The New York Times, Walter spoke through tears as she recounted that Tambor "never crossed the line on our show, with any, you know, sexual whatever." She said that he verbally harassed her, but he did apologise. Tambor was also part of the interview along with Jason Bateman, Alia Shawkat, Will Arnett and David Cross.

Tambor himself had first spoken of the incident in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter where he referenced a "blowup" with Walter for which he later "profusely apologised". Walter had then refused to comment on the issue.

Jessica Walter. AP

Tambor's former assistant and an actress on Amazon's Transparent had made allegations of sexual misconduct against Tambor in 2017 which eventually led to his firing from the show. Tambor has denied the harassment claims and said he was "profoundly disappointed" in how Amazon handled the matter.

A recent AP report had said that the Arrested Development cast had unanimously supported the 73-year-old actor at the Los Angeles premiere of the cult comedy's new season. They had said that they could only speak to their own experiences with the Emmy Award-winning actor.

"All I know about is Arrested Development and he's always just been incredible with us and I'm really looking forward to seeing him tonight," Jason Bateman had said. "My experience with Jeffrey has been nothing but respectful," echoed Tony Hale. "And he is such a funny man. He's so talented and he's an integral part of the show and just my experience has been nothing but respectful. I was not, I don't have information on that other. But like, if I'm speaking from my perspective, it's been nothing but respectful."

When asked about Tambor remaining in season five, Walter, who plays his wife on the show had simply said, "The family is the family. You can't cut anybody out nor would we ever want to. It is what it is."

For Alia Shawkat, who has known Tambor for many years and supports the women of the #MeToo movement, the situation was not cut and dry. "Well, it's a very complicated issue, obviously. I'm very close to Jeffrey and I care about him a lot. I just don't think it has to completely be so one way or the other. It's a complicated time, but I'm hoping that as this revolution progresses that we get more involved in the specifics of things and, you know, I support him being on the show, but I also support the voices of the victims at the same time," she had explained.

(Also read — Watch: Arrested Development season 5 trailer promises more comedy from the dysfunctional Bluths)