Actor Cate Blanchett has spoken out about how she feels that the #MeToo movement in Hollywood “got killed very quickly”, leading to issues still persisting on film sets across America.
Cate Blanchett on #MeToo in Hollywood
Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday, the two-time Oscar winner touched upon many issues in a wide-ranging staged conversation. During that conversation, Cate lamented that the tide of #MeToo has been turned in Hollywood, where she has been outspoken about gender equality.
“It got killed very quickly, which I think is interesting,” said Blanchett, adding, “There are a lot of people with platforms who are able to speak up with relative safety and say this has happened to me. And the so-called average woman on the street, person on the street, is saying MeToo. Why does that get shut down?”
The actor added that the situation regarding gender equality and women’s safety on American film sets remains the same. “I’m still on film sets, and I do the headcount every day. There are 10 women, and there are 75 men every morning,” she said, “I love men, but what happens is the jokes become the same. You just have to brace yourself slightly, and I’m used to that, but it just gets boring for everybody when you walk into a homogeneous workplace.”
Cate Blanchett’s 2018 protest at Cannes
The #MeToo movement erupted in 2017 after several women spoke up against the abuse, harassment, and sexism they faced, allegedly at the hands of powerful men in Hollywood. This led to demands for far-reaching changes in the Hollywood studio structure. In 2018, Cate Blanchett was the president of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival, and she took part in a red-carpet protest.
She and 81 other women appeared on the steps of the Palais des Festivals, symbolically representing the number of female directors who were selected for Cannes’ competition lineup. Over the same period, 1,866 male directors had been selected.