Emma Thompson has labelled Harvey Weinstein a “predator” as she compared sexual allegations around the film producer to the Jimmy Savile scandal.
The two-time Oscar winner said the movie mogul was at the top of a ladder of “harassment and belittling” following allegations of rape made by three women in an article in the New Yorker and a string of sexual harassment allegations from women who worked with him.
Thompson, who is said to have threatened to quit a film in 2007 after Weinstein was accused of calling her co-star a “fat pig”, told the BBC’s Newsnight programme: “I don’t think you can describe him as a sex addict. He’s a predator.
Harvey Weinstein (PA)
“He’s an actual predator, he’s dangerous and what he’s done and what he’s doing is criminal.
“Isn’t it the same story as Jimmy Savile? It’s the same story.”
Asked if she thought there were others in Hollywood who acted like Weinstein, Thompson said: “Of course, many, many.”
She added: “Maybe not to that degree. Do they have to all be as bad as him to make it count? Does it only count if you really have done it to loads and loads and loads of women? Or does it count if you do it to one woman once. I think the latter.
“So what we need to start talking about is the crisis in masculinity, the crisis of extreme masculinity which is this sort of behaviour and the fact that it is not only OK, but it also is represented by the most powerful man in the world at the moment.”
On Tuesday, Weinstein was accused of rape by three women – claims the producer “unequivocally denies” – and his British wife Georgina Chapman announced she was leaving him.
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