Ekland: It’s not easy to be a man in Metoo era
BRITT EKLAND has said the Metoo movement makes it “very hard” to be a man as behaviour that was once laughed off will now get you into “serious trouble”.
Famed for her Bond Girl status, Ekland said “times have changed” since she starred opposite Roger Moore in
The Man With the Golden Gun.
“Back then it was hard to be a woman. And nowadays it’s very hard to be a man,” Ekland told Event magazine.
“Times have changed but it was how we grew up. At school when you started wearing a bra, the boy sitting behind you in the class would flick it undone and everyone would laugh. Now that boy would be in serious trouble.”
Ekland lived a whirlwind life in her younger years, socialising with royalty as well as having two rock songs written about her by ex-boyfriend Rod Stewart.
Throughout the Sixties and Seventies she starred in numerous cult films, including The Wicker Man, but revealed she often “hated” working on the classic as “it was all about running around topless in the cold”.
“When I started out, it wasn’t so easy for women, especially if you wanted to work and get on,” she said. According to the 77-year-old, sexual harassment was “rampant” and “expected” as a young actress in the Sixties, but now “everyone will listen” to women’s complaints in light of the Metoo movement.
“That sort of thing wasn’t just normal,” Ekland explained. “It was pretty much what you expected when you went along for a job with a director or a producer. It was rampant. And girls just went with it.
“You smiled politely and, yes, you did have to do things you didn’t want to do, but show me an actress of my age who hasn’t had that experience.
“It was a very different time. I think it’s amazing these Metoo girls can get up and scream and shout and everyone will listen.”
The Wicker Man (1973) is a classic of British cinema, but one of its co-stars, Britt Ekland, recalls spending it “running around topless in the cold”. It’s hard to be a man in the Metoo age, Ms Ekland says, but remember that it used to be a lot harder on women: sexual harassment was rife and the movies unenlightened. In 1974’s Man With the Golden Gun, she played Mary Goodnight, a dizzy blonde secret agent who triggered a laser by accidentally hitting the switch with her bottom.
The very point of these movies was to flatter men; James Bond grew older but the girls never seemed to notice. The playing field has now levelled but the popular taste for sex remains, which means postmodern Bond has to run around in the cold with his top off, too. Does Daniel Craig object? “This never happened to the other fellow.”