Many of the sexual misconduct allegations against Hollywood’s most famous men have followed a similar pattern: A less famous (or totally unknown) woman who works (or worked) in the entertainment industry comes forward, breaking a long-held silence to reveal her ordeal at the hands of a famous, powerful man in his heyday; famous, powerful man denies their account and, in some cases, denies all memory of the accuser. In the case of Michael Douglas, this order has been turned on its head.

Earlier this month, Douglas attempted to get out in front of an impending harassment allegation that a number of outlets were sitting on, by revealing (and denying) the claims himself. Douglas told Deadline that he had been contacted for comment on a story that was “a complete lie, fabrication, no truth to it whatsoever,” and had decided to jump the gun, openly laying out his accuser’s claims—that he had used colorful, raunchy language in front of her; that he had fired her, then blackballed her; and that he had masturbated in front of her—before she could, in order to dispute them.

“I had the choice of waiting for a story to come out, one that will clearly get picked up by other newspapers and magazines, and then I have to sit there and try to defend myself,” he said. “Or, try to share with the public, a little ahead of the story, my thoughts and concerns.”

Now, in reverse of the usual order of a Hollywood harassment allegation, his accuser’s side of the story has been made public. Susan Braudy, a writer who worked for Douglas as a script editor in the 1980s, spoke to NBC News’ Kate Snow about her experience with Douglas, while Hollywood Reporter editor Matthew Belloni published a column about her allegations.

Braudy’s side of the story implies that Douglas’ language was much more than “colorful” and “raunchy,” and was not simply things he said “in front of her, on the phone … with friends,” as the 73-year-old actor told Deadline. Rather, it was sexual language spoken to her and about her. In one incident shared with the Hollywood Reporter, Braudy claims that Douglas muttered a highly inappropriate joke so that only she could hear it:

One screenwriter I hired asked if he could bring his daughter to meet Michael. … She asked Michael for a banana. Michael strode to me and said so that only I could hear, “Yes. And then you can tell your friends you licked Michael Douglas’ banana.” I was appalled.

She also alleges Douglas made comments about her appearance and her laugh, telling a group of agents after one particularly loud laugh that “Oh yeah, she’s a screamer! I bet she screams in the sack.” Unsurprisingly, the masturbation incident, which Douglas pre-emptively denied to Deadline, is much more comprehensive in Braudy’s account:

Michael unzipped his chinos and I registered something amiss. Still complimenting my additions to our E.T. imitation, his voice lowered at least half an octave. I peered at him and saw he’d inserted both hands into his unzipped pants. I realized to my horror that he was rubbing his private parts. Within seconds his voice cracked and it appeared to me he’d had an orgasm.

Braudy confided in multiple friends about the incident at the time, many of whom confirmed as much to the Hollywood Reporter. Michael Wolff, of Fire and Fury fame, said that Braudy was “shaken, bewildered, frightened, angry” in the wake of the incident. “He thought he was the king of the world and that he could humiliate me without any repercussion,” Braudy told Snow in her NBC interview.

Whether or not the allegations are true, it’s clear Douglas downplayed them in revealing them to Deadline first. Though jumping the gun is an unusual strategy, it may have been an effective one: By going early and on the offensive, Douglas turned his narrative into more than just an evasive denial. Douglas also defensively claimed that Braudy’s claim comes from a place of professional dissatisfaction, and portrayed himself as the victim in this episode of he said, she said. “I can’t believe that someone would cause someone else pain like this” sounds like exactly the kind of phrases we are reading and hearing from victims in the #MeToo moment. But in this case, the statement didn’t come from an alleged victim—it came from the accused.