A Whole Lot Of People Are Speaking Out About Harvey Weinstein

Sorry, I should clarify: a whole lot of women and a couple dudes. For some reason, the men of Hollywood aren’t exactly rushing to pipe up with their thoughts about the recent dump of sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein. Which I’m sure is just because they dropped their cellphones in the toilet and have no current means of communication, and not because they had been benefiting from doing business with the alleged creepy shower enthusiast. But for now, we’ve got the thoughts from plenty of actresses and a couple actors, including George Clooney.

Unlike Donna Karan, many women are coming forward to condemn Harvey’s alleged behavior. Yesterday Meryl Streep released a statement regarding the allegations (she claimed she didn’t know he had a reputation, but was disgusted nonetheless). We’ve already heard lots from Ashley Judd and Rose McGowan.

Today’s round includes Jessica Chastain, who is revolted by Harvey Weinstein’s alleged behavior (which she claims she was warned of), and adds that she never chose to work with him. She’s also “shattered” by the recently released news that her co-star in The Martian Matt Damon tried to kill a New York Times story on Harvey’s alleged grossness back in 2004.

I was warned from the beginning. The stories were everywhere. To deny that is to create an enviornment for it to happen again.

— Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) October 9, 2017

No. He bought films that I already made.

— Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) October 9, 2017

Yes. Im sick of the media demanding only women speak up. What about the men? Perhaps many are afraid to look at their own behavior….. https://t.co/tGUsjUYNMR

— Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) October 9, 2017

This is heart shattering https://t.co/xqgrH5Smgp

— Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) October 9, 2017

Kate Winslet, who worked with Harvey Weinstein on The Reader (a film she won an Oscar for), released the following statement to Variety. She’s not having any of it either.

“The fact that these women are starting to speak out about the gross misconduct of one of our most important and well regarded film producers, is incredibly brave and has been deeply shocking to hear. The way Harvey Weinstein has treated these vulnerable, talented young women is NOT the way women should ever EVER deem to be acceptable or commonplace in ANY workplace.

I have no doubt that for these women this time has been, and continues to be extremely traumatic. I fully embrace and salute their profound courage, and I unequivocally support this level of very necessary exposure of someone who has behaved in reprehensible and disgusting ways. His behaviour is without question disgraceful and appalling and very, very wrong. I had hoped that these kind of stories were just made up rumours, maybe we have all been naïve. And it makes me so angry. There must be ‘no tolerance’ of this degrading, vile treatment of women in ANY workplace anywhere in the world.”

Jennifer Lawrence, who like Kate Winslet won her first Academy Award after appearing in a film distributed by The Weinstein Company (Silver Linings Playbook), released a statement to People about Harvey. She says she didn’t know anything about the allegations.

“I was deeply disturbed to hear the news about Harvey Weinstein’s behavior. I worked with Harvey five years ago and I did not experience any form of harassment personally, nor did I know about any of these allegations. This kind of abuse is inexcusable and absolutely upsetting. My heart goes out to all of the women affected by these gross actions. And I want to thank them for their bravery to come forward.”

Glenn Close spoke to The New York Times saying she was aware of the rumors, and she’s upset she didn’t take them more seriously. She’s also pissed at all the Harvey enablers. Dame Judi Dench, who once joked that she’s got Harvey Weinstein’s name tattooed on her ass, released a statement yesterday saying much of the same thing Meryl did; that she didn’t know, but supports those who have spoken up.

Lena Dunham’s statement came in the form of a piece written for The New York Times called Harvey Weinstein and the Silence of the Men. In it, she spoke of her own experience with questionable industry sexism, and also called for Hollywood men to speak up and denounce Harvey’s alleged behavior. Some men have done so. Judd Apatow, Kevin Smith, and Mark Ruffalo have tweeted support for the women.

George Clooney, who has worked with Harvey Weinstein several times, had a lot to say to The Daily Beast. He didn’t hold back. George Clooney says he heard rumors about Harvey Weinstein’s alleged behavior back in the 90s, but the rumors were often that “certain actresses had slept with Harvey to get a role.” George says he took the rumors with a grain of salt, because it seemed more like a way to “smear the actresses and demean them” by implying they didn’t land the role based on talent. George says that now, he firmly believes the allegations are “indefensible.”

As for the whole thing about not knowing about Harvey’s alleged behavior, George says he kind of gets it:

“A lot of people are doing the ‘you had to know’ thing right now, and yes, if you’re asking if I knew that someone who was very powerful had a tendency to hit on young, beautiful women, sure. But I had no idea that it had gone to the level of having to pay off eight women for their silence, and that these women were threatened and victimized. I’ve been talking with a lot of people about this, and I don’t know many people who knew of that.”

George also says that people need to speak up.

“This is harassment on a very high level. And there’s an argument that everyone is complicit in it. I suppose the argument would be that it’s not just about Hollywood, but about all of us – that every time you see someone using their power and influence to take advantage of someone without power and influence and you don’t speak up, you’re complicit. And there’s no question about that.”

George Clooney clearly believes that if you see something, you should say something. Maybe when George hits the red carpet for the premiere of Suburbicon at the end of the month, he can take his buddy Matt Damon aside for a little chat. If only just to say something to the effect of: “You know you fucked up back in 2004, right?”

Pic: Wenn.com