Reese Witherspoon & Jennifer Lawrence Share Hollywood Abuse Stories

Reese Witherspoon was assaulted by a film director when she was 16 years old and Jennifer Lawerence was told to drop some lbs to star in a film ... just some of the abuse they say they endured coming up in Hollywood.

The Academy Award winning actresses shared the harrowing stories Monday night during the ELLE Women in Hollywood event. The actresses went into great detail on the heels of former studio boss Harvey Weinstein getting ousted from his company after scores of women accused him of decades-old sexual assault and harassment.

Reese says she's not only angry at the director who assaulted her, saying, "[I feel] true disgust at the director who assaulted me when I was 16 years old and anger at the agents and the producers who made me feel that silence was a condition of my employment."

She went on to say she was sexually harassed and assaulted on multiple occasions.

Jennifer said a director once told her to lose 15 pounds in 2 weeks ... and as motivation for her diet? Jennifer said a female producer told her to use naked photos of herself from a previous nude lineup as inspiration.