‘Grateful for opportunity

LOS ANGELES: Responding to director Woody Allen’s “witch-hunt atmosphere” remark, actor Olivia Munn said the system is complicit for letting predators back into the mainstream. Allen, an Oscar-winning director, had voiced his concern about Hollywood slipping into a “witch-hunt” culture in the aftermath of Harvey Weinstein scandal where multiple women accused the producer of sexual misconduct.

“The possibility of an overcorrection is much less worrisome than all of the injustices that led us to this moment. Woody’s gut instinct to fear what this might become would be better suited to a gut instinct to hold back an urge that could be wrong,” Munn wrote in an op-ed for Entertainment Weekly.

Munn was one of six women who came forward with accusations against Ratner, as initially published in The Times. The star claimed the director once masturbated in front of her and made sexually aggressive comments to her in public.

“When people ask how these men in powerful positions were able to hurt so many people for so many years, I look to the people at the top and ask those questions. “The system that lets men like (Brett) Ratner and Allen back in, is the same system that creates disparity. It’s tilted to roll back into their favour while the rest of us are saddled with a Sisyphean task,” she wrote.

The X-men: Apocalypse actor called for a “zero- tolerance policy” for sexual assault, harassment and misconduct in Hollywood.

“This is not a ‘women’s’ issue, this is an abuse-of-power issue and until we eradicate the diseased roots of our infrastructure and make foundational, systemic changes, nothing will change. “We can use this moment to create a lasting shift. We should create a zero-tolerance policy with actionable consequences for sexual assault and any other forms of abuse,” she added.

The actor also advocated equal pay for women in the industry as a way to prevent them from feeling inferior.