Portia de Rossi claims Steven Seagal sexually harassed her

'He told me how important it was to have chemistry off-screen as he sat me down and unzipped his leather pants,' says actor

De Rossi’s allegations come after fellow actor Julianna Margulies claimed she had a similarly sexually inappropriate encounter with Seagal (Getty Images)

Portia de Rossi has accused Steven Seagal of sexual harassment and claimed the actor unzipped his trousers during an audition.

The Australian actor, who is famed for playing lawyer Nelle Porter on Ally McBeal, claimed the actor informed her it was it was imperative they had chemistry away from the film set during an audition for a film starring Seagal.

“My final audition for a Steven Seagal movie took place in his office. He told me how important it was to have chemistry off-screen as he sat me down and unzipped his leather pants,” De Rossi said on Twitter.

De Rossi’s allegations come after fellow actor Julianna Margulies claimed she had a similarly sexually inappropriate encounter with Seagal. Last week, The Good Wife lead character said a female casting director asked her to go to the actor’s room to go over a scene at 10pm when she was just 23.

Margulies was informed it was between her and another actress for the role, which would have gained her a Screen Actors Guild card, widely perceived to be an opening to the industry.

Margulies said the casting director was not present when she arrived at the hotel but Seagal was. When she entered his hotel room, she said: “I saw his gun, which I had never seen a gun in real life”.

She added that she somehow, she managed to get out of the room, "unscathed."

"I never was raped. And I never was harmed. And I don’t know how I got out of that hotel room … I sort of screamed my way out," she said.

In October, former actress and Inside Edition correspondent Lisa Guerrero claimed the actor invited her to audition in his private home in the mid-1990’s and carried the meeting out in a silk kimono.

The Independent contacted representatives of Seagal, who has yet to respond to the allegations, for comment.