Since the emergence of sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein back in October, Meryl Streep has fiercely spoken out against the Hollywood producer and expressed her support for his victims and others of revelations related to the industry.
The Oscar winning actress was recently interviewed by the New York Times alongside her The Post co-star Tom Hanks during which she was asked about Weinstein and Dustin Hoffman, her Kramer vs Kramer co-star and another major industry figure who has had sexual harassment allegations brought against him.
On Weinstein, Streep said: “it really underlined my own sense of cluelessness, and also how evil, deeply evil, and duplicitous, a person he was, yet such a champion of really great work.
“You make movies. You think you know everything about everybody. So much gossip. You don’t know anything,” she added. “People are so inscrutable on a certain level. And it’s a shock. Some of my favorite people have been brought down by this, and he’s not one of them.”
Asked if Hoffman had slapped her, as rumour had it, Streep confirmed that the incident had occurred during the shooting of Kramer vs Kramer.
“This is tricky because when you’re an actor, you’re in a scene, you have to feel free,” she said. “I’m sure that I have inadvertently hurt people in physical scenes. But there’s a certain amount of forgiveness in that. But this was my first movie, and it was my first take in my first movie, and he just slapped me. And you see it in the movie. It was overstepping.”
Streep also expressed her belief that such behaviour is “being corrected in this moment,” alluding to the ongoing investigation of allegations into numerous Hollywood figures as well as to movements such as the recent Time’s Up being instigated by influential figures and gaining traction. “They will be fixed, because people won’t accept it anymore,” she said. “So that’s a good thing.”
