Blake Lively spoke out against Harvey Weinstein after multiple women came forward accusing him of sexual misconduct.
“That was never my experience with Harvey in any way whatsoever, and I think that if people heard these stories … I do believe in humanity enough to think that this wouldn’t have just continued. I never heard any stories like this — I never heard anything specific — but it’s devastating to hear,” the Gossip Girl alum, 30, told The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday, October 11. “The No. 1 thing that can happen is that people who share their stories, people have to listen to them and trust them, and people have to take it seriously.”
The Green Lantern actress added: “As important as it is to remain furious about this, it’s important to also say that this exists everywhere so remember to look everywhere. This isn’t a single incident. This cannot happen, this should not happen, and it happens in ever single industry.”
“It happens to women all over the place, all the time, to the point where women don’t even think that this is a real assault,” she continued. “I’ve had plenty of things happen to me whether it be trying on a dress for prom at some clothing store, to a director being inappropriate, to a guy walking down the street where you don’t think, ‘Oh well, that wasn’t actually sexual assault — this just just, like, grabbed my butt.’”
In a call to action, The Shallows star noted, “It’s important that women are furious right now. It’s important that there is an uprising. It’s important that we don’t stand for this and that we don’t focus on one or two or three or four stories, it’s important that we focus on humanity in general and say, ‘This is unacceptable.’”
As previously reported, 65-year-old Weinstein was fired from his own company amid allegations of sexual harassment and assault made against him. The former studio exec denied the claims in a statement to Us Weekly. “Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein,” his spokesperson Sallie Hofmeister said. “Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances. Mr. Weinstein obviously can’t speak to anonymous allegations, but with respect to any women who have made allegations on the record, Mr. Weinstein believes that all of these relationships were consensual.”
Weinstein’s wife, Georgina Chapman, recently announced that she is leaving him to focus on their children’s wellbeing. The Miramax producer reportedly flew to Arizona on Wednesday, October 11, to seek treatment for sex addiction.
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