Hollywood director’s son accused of lewd water polo acts goes underground — as his mom gives arrogant four-word message

A Los Angeles water polo star has gone underground after being accused of sexually abusing and racially tormenting his black teammate.

Lucca Van der Woude — a former Harvard-Westlake School standout once considered a future Olympic prospect — is in hiding after Aidan Romain filed a bombshell lawsuit.

The 18-year-old, who is the son of longtime film assistant director Thomas “Basti” Van der Woude, was nowhere to be found last week when The Post visited his parents’ palatial home in Costa Mesa.

The elite private school he attends is out on spring break.

But Van der Woude’s mother, Nilda, who allegedly served as the water polo team’s “team mom,” coordinating logistics and communications for parents, did show her face.

“Speak with our attorney,” was her curt response to a reporter who asked after her son. Nilda said her son wasn’t home, but he was in the area and not away for the break.

Her position as the water polo team’s “team mom,” helped cement van der Woude’s standing on the squad, the lawsuit claims.

Van der Woude’s father is a wealthy Hollywood insider who has worked on dozens of major productions over the past three decades, including “Thor: The Dark World,” “Fast & Furious 5,” “Battleship,” and the series “Fear the Walking Dead.”

The celebrated director — known professionally as Basti — won a Director’s Guild of America award in 2016 for the HBO film “Bessie,” where he was recognized for “Outstanding Directorial Achievement.

The allegations against the water polo star surfaced in the suit filed last month by former teammate Romain, who says Van der Woude subjected him to months of racist harassment and sexual abuse while playing on Harvard-Westlake’s elite team.

Van der Woude repeatedly sexually assaulted Romain — the only black player on the team — and blasted him with racial slurs during practices and team activities while they were minors at the ultra-exclusive Studio City school, the lawsuit claims.

Cops in February 2024 arrested Van der Woude on campus and the athlete later admitted in juvenile court to sexual penetration of a minor with a foreign object, the Post previously reported.

“It was very difficult on a daily basis to deal with the racial abuse and the sexual abuse,” Romain, who is currently living in Barcelona, Spain, told ABC 7 Eyewitness News.

“The racial abuse and sexual abuse was a daily basis thing,” he added. “It happened in nearly every training; it would happen many times daily, sometimes outside of the pool. So, it was certainly a difficult experience.”

Van der Woude’s lawyer told Eyewitness News in March that the allegations will be addressed in court, and they have no intention to “litigate this matter in the media.”

“Mr. Van Der Woude’s denials and other responses will be clear and unambiguous in his defense to the complaint at hand,” said Michael Artan.

Artan couldn’t immediately be reached Sunday for an update on his client.

Romain’s lawsuit also names another player — Connor Kim, now a water polo player at Harvard University — as a fellow tormentor who allegedly joined in the racially abusive behavior with van der Woude.

Lillian Chu, Kim’s attorney, said the statements made in the complaint about Kim are false.

“Although Connor is not a named defendant in this case, it’s important to point out that these claims and the assertion that he admitted to wrongdoing are simply not true,” said Chu.

The suit claims school officials and coaches were repeatedly notified of the twisted hazing but failed to stop it.

Teammates whipped Romain with exercise bands in what the lawsuit described as a degrading “re-enactment of slavery,” in one alleged incident detailed in the complaint.

The lawsuit further alleges van der Woude violated a court-ordered no-contact order 23 times by appearing at the same water polo events as Romain, according to the outlet.

Harvard-Westlake pushed back on the claims, saying it treated reports of misconduct seriously and complied with mandatory reporting obligations.

A statement from the school said Harvard-Westlake “unequivocally disputes many of these allegations that mischaracterize facts and the school’s actions.”

“The school treated reports of inappropriate behavior in its water polo program with urgency and seriousness, promptly initiating an investigation and complying with its mandatory reporting obligations,”  the statement sa

But veteran Harvard-Westlake water polo coach Jack Grover is being probed by the US Center for SafeSport over allegations he failed to properly report abuse claims, the Daily Mail reported.

Romain ultimately fled the US to continue training in Europe after the alleged abuse.

The athlete said he wants to return to America to attend an Ivy League school before hopefully representing the US in the Olympics.

“Part of the reason why I’m speaking up and standing up for myself is so that others don’t have to be in these kinds of situations,” said Romain.

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