While doing publicity rounds for the already (domestically) successful female heist movie, Oceans 8, overseas, Sandra Bullock sat down for an interview with the U.K.’s Sunday Times. In doing so, Bullock confirmed that disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein’s decades-long pattern of predatory behavior was indeed an “open secret” in Hollywood. That tidbit wouldn’t be newsworthy on its own, but Bullock’s take was a particularly visceral one.
Bullock, who has somehow managed to evade working with Weinstein since breaking out in the mid 1990s, explains how she pointedly avoided doing so. She states not only that she “was too afraid” of him, but Bullock also reveals the disturbing chatter she heard about Weinstein’s alleged victims:
“I only heard what Harvey wanted people to hear, and that made me so f*cking angry. People would say, ‘Well, you know how she got that role? She f*cked Harvey.’ I would say, ‘Shut the f*ck up. You don’t know that.’ Then, later, to find out that woman was brutally attacked … They didn’t sleep with Harvey. Harvey wanted you to think that.”
Indeed, this was the prevailing falsehood perpetuated by the Weinstein machine for many years … that women willingly jumped onto his casting couch. Less than a year ago, mountains of allegations began to surface, and dozens of victims, including Rose McGowan, Mira Sorvino, Paz de la Huerta, have come forward to give their accounts of sexual harassment and sexual assaults, after which Weinstein reportedly threatened them with blacklisting if they talked.
Bullock also admits that although she was relieved when Weinstein’s alleged victims began publicly talking, she worried about more backlash:
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is amazing, but f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, what if it doesn’t work? Please God, let it not swing the other way.’ We’re in such uncharted territory right now. I’ve seen a lot of fear and a lot of men of a certain generation not understanding.”
Weinstein has since been indicted by a New York grand jury on multiple rape and criminal sexual act charges in relation to two victims. He has pleaded not guilty while awaiting trial, but in the meantime, the Screen Actors Guild has called for an end to hotel-room meetings that place actresses (and their male counterparts) in potentially dangerous, “casting couch” situations.
(Via Sunday Times)