Mindfood speaks to some heavyweight female celebrities in Hollywood about the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Some of their reactions might surprise you:
Kate Hudson
“I don’t think anybody is surprised, but as unaware as I was of all of these things that are happening, I think it’s just appalling. And I feel so much support for my friends who are coming out and being courageous enough to speak of their experiences. Myself, I never had that experience. I just think it’s a really important time for women to be honest about their experiences in the workplace and to not be afraid to come forward about it. So hopefully out of that comes a greater awareness about people’s behaviour.”
Annette Bening
“I didn’t have any big episode like what people are describing. And also, I didn’t start doing movies until I was almost 30. So I think it was different for me because I was older. And I didn’t have that experience in the theatre and it could have happened there too. Now that more and more of these stories are coming out and people are describing what they have been through, I didn’t go through that, so I am very lucky. So I think part of it was because I was already older by the time I started doing movies I was a little bit more grownup. But maybe this is the tipping point and changes will come.”
Viola Davis
“Weinstein taught us that if we hold it in too much, all of our pain, anger, the more we die. And I think what is happening now is that people are being encouraged to say, ‘You know what, this is who I am. All of it, I am going to leave it all on the floor. This is who I am, this is what I look like in the morning and this is when I was sexually abused, this is what happened and I felt it was my fault and I felt dirty, but no more.’ It caused me this amount of anger and now I am married and I am learning how to love and I am learning to own it all. And the understanding, the owning it all is that is connecting us. I think we are starting to get it, if that makes sense.
There’s no way to encapsulate it into one kind of snazzy statement except for that. And I know that because I spent most of my life being ashamed of everything. Everything. Being ashamed of being too dark, too deep, having a deep voice, not being a size two, apologised for everything. Being ashamed of everything, until I realised that you know what, there’s a expiration date on life and there is no U-Haul on the back of a hearse.
“So at some point, you have got to own the fact that this is your life, this is it, no holds barred. I was one of the woman who said “Me Too” on my status. And I felt that it was important for me to say it. I feel like everybody is watching me and I can either use it to puff myself up, or I can use it to instill power and life force in other women and be an instrument of change. So I felt that it was important for me to say “Me Too.”
Kate Bosworth
“I am incredibly proud of the victims that have come forth. It takes so much courage to come out publicly and discuss any kind of abuse or harassment. When one undergoes something like that there is a feeling of being immobilised by fear and the fact that they were able to overcome that within themselves and come forth and promote much needed change in this industry.
Yes, you know, they had a very specific experience with someone, but obviously this is a problem this idea of acceptable sexism in this industry has been a problem for years. I think that across the board we’ve had enough and I mean that by both men and women, my husband being one of them. He’s had enough. He pledges to not accept this any longer and I do too. I think it’s absolutely important to have both men and women understand the deep issue that this industry has and come together to effect real change.”
