Mandy Moore and her This Is Us costars were applauded at The Rape Foundation’s Annual Brunch to benefit the Rape Treatment Center and Stuart House in Beverly Hills on Sunday, October 8.
While the cast was being honored at the event for teaching empathy on the NBC television show, Moore explained, “It’s funny to think that we’re being honored. I kind of view it quite the opposite.” She continued, ”You leave feeling inspired and it’s heartwarming, heartbreaking and everything sort of rolled into one.”
The 33-year-old actress explained, “The numbers are staggering to think that one in five women will be raped in her lifetime. One in every four girls and one in every six boys will be sexually abused before the age of 18. These numbers don’t lie, and yet it’s so stigmatized.”
The “Candy” songstress has luckily not experienced sexual assault or harassment, but acknowledges that she is an “outlier considering the statistics.” “I feel fortunate to have not experienced anything along these lines in my own life or career,” she added.
To help out, Moore suggested that more people talk about issues like this. ”I think today is important to get a little more comfortable with the uncomfortable,” she explained. “I think it’s all the more important to be here and to be talking about it and give a voice to the voiceless and support women and victims.”
“It couldn’t come at a more important time just in light of recent (news)” the Walk to Remember actress said, referring to the recent firing of film producer Harvey Weinstein amid sexual harassment allegations.
“I can’t really speak to that because I’ve never experienced anything along those lines before, but I certainly believe and support women that have and I’m not naive enough to believe that it doesn’t happen. It just hasn’t happened to me personally,” she added.
Milo Ventimiglia shared his thoughts on Weinstein’s sexual harassment scandal too saying, “I think men have a great responsibility in Hollywood in general. I think we need to show compassion and strength. We need to show understanding, communication, and I think we need to stand up for people.” He continued, “Let’s represent ourselves as good leaders and represent ourselves as good men. I think good men kind of need to come back.”
