Famed actress Glenn Close weighed in on the Weinstein allegations, giving you an idea of life in Hollywood for women on the whole.
“I’m sitting here, deeply upset, acknowledging to myself that, yes, for many years, I have been aware of the vague rumors that Harvey Weinstein had a pattern of behaving inappropriately around women. Harvey has always been decent to me, but now that the rumors are being substantiated, I feel angry and darkly sad,” she begins.
“I’m angry, not just at him and the conspiracy of silence around his actions, but also that the ‘casting couch’ phenomenon, so to speak, is still a reality in our business and in the world: the horrible pressure, the awful expectation put on a woman when a powerful, egotistical, entitled bully expects sexual favors in exchange for a job,” she continues.
“Ours is an industry in which very few actors are indispensable and women are cast in far fewer roles than men, so the stakes are higher for women and make them more vulnerable to the manipulations of a predator,” she writes. “I applaud the monumental courage of the women who have spoken up. I hope that their stories and the reportage that gave them their voices represent a tipping point, that more stories will be told and that change will follow.”
“The changes must be both institutional and personal. Men and women, in positions of power, must create a work environment in which people, whose jobs depend on them, feel safe to report threatening and inappropriate behavior, like that reported in the Times,” she writes. “No one should be coerced into trading personal dignity for professional success.”
“I feel the time is long and tragically overdue for all of us in the industry, women and men, to unite — calmly and dispassionately — and create a new culture of respect, equality and empowerment, where bullies and their enablers are no longer allowed to prosper.”
With so many now stepping forward it’s amazing he’s been allowed to get away with this sort of behavior for so long.