Friends ask for a second chance for Hollywood men
Three heavyweights ‘forever changed’ following accusations
When the #MeToo movement picked up late last year, it seemed as though new misconduct allegations against powerful men in Hollywood came about each week. Their careers were often immediately affected: Amazon fired Transparent star Jeffrey Tambor, accused of harassing a former assistant and co-star; Louis C.K., who admitted to masturbating in front of unwilling female comics, had the theatrical release of his film I Love You, Daddy cancelled; many actors declared they would never again work with Woody Allen, whose daughter has long accused him of sexual abuse; and so on.
What happens next? As a widely circulated New York Times op-ed recently asked, what do we do with the accused men in the long run?
This week, close friends and family of the three aforementioned men presented their solution: Give them another chance.
Though he denied sexually harassing assistant Van Barnes and co-star Trace Lysette on the set of Transparent, Tambor told the Hollywood Reporter earlier this month that he has yelled and acted aggressively toward several colleagues in the past. He also acknowledged a “blow-up” directed at Arrested Development co-star Jessica Walter, who spoke out in an emotional interview with the cast of Arrested Development published Wednesday by the Times.
As Walter attempted to address Tambor’s behaviour, her male co-stars defended him. Jason Bateman said it’s common for people in the industry to be “difficult” because “what we do for a living is not normal,” a sentiment Tony Hale echoed and only Alia Shawkat challenged, saying it “doesn’t mean (the behaviour is), acceptable.” David Cross said Tambor “learned from the experience and he’s listening and learning and growing.”
Walter said tearfully: “Jason says this happens all the time. In like almost 60 years of working, I’ve never had anybody yell at me like that on a set. And it’s hard to deal with, but I’m over it now. I just let it go right here, for the New York Times.”
Bateman apologized Thursday for attempting “to mansplain, or fix a fight, or make everything OK” instead of listening to how Tambor’s outburst affected Walter. Hale tweeted that his own “words, both said and unsaid, served to minimize Jessica’s pain and for that I am extremely sorry.”
Sarah Silverman expressed in an interview with GQ also published Wednesday that she hopes her once-acclaimed friends Louis C.K. and former U.S. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., accused of groping and forcibly kissing multiple women, have the opportunity to redeem themselves.
“I think that there are people who were
“There are people that come and say, I’m guilty of these things, and I’m wrong, and I want to be changed from this.” — Sarah Silverman
caught and there were people who were not caught, but the important thing is that they are forever changed,” she said, referring to C.K. “And if that’s the case, I don’t see any reason why they can’t continue being artists ... there are people that come and say, I’m guilty of these things, and I’m wrong, and I want to be changed from this. And yet those are the ones that kind of are excommunicated forever.”
Silverman told GQ she believes “in my heart of heart of hearts” that Franken is innocent and “got bullied into resigning.”
Then Moses Farrow wrote in a blog post, also published on Wednesday, that his father, Allen, “continues to be condemned for a crime he did not commit.” (Farrow’s sister, Dylan, has been an outspoken advocate of the #MeToo movement and holds that Allen sexually abused her when she was seven.)
“To those who have become convinced of my father’s guilt, I ask you to consider this: In this time of #MeToo, when so many movie heavyweights have faced dozens of accusations, my father has been accused of wrongdoing only once, by an enraged ex-partner during contentious custody negotiations,” Moses wrote.
On Twitter, Dylan called her brother “a troubled person” and wrote that the post is “beyond hurtful to me personally, and is part of a larger effort to discredit and distract from my assault.” Their brother Ronan, who shares a Pulitzer Prize with the Times for his Harvey Weinstein exposé published in The New Yorker, added, “My sister’s allegation is backed by a significant body of credible evidence, including physical evidence and eyewitnesses to abuse ... I believe my sister.”