Meryl Streep called out Melania and Ivanka Trump, while simultaneously shrugging off any criticism against herself, for not speaking up following a wave of sexual assault allegations against men in various industries in an interview with The New York Times.
“I want to hear about the silence of Melania Trump. I want to hear from her. She has so much that’s valuable to say,” Streep said. “And so does Ivanka. I want her to speak now.”
Her comments came as she was asked questions about her own initial silence following the allegations made against disgraced media mogul Harvey Weinstein. Streep said when she found out about Weinstein she had to go “deep into my life,” and take time to reflect on the accusations.
“I really had to think,” Streep said, adding: “Because it really underlined my own sense of cluelessness, and also how evil, deeply evil, and duplicitous, a person he was, yet such a champion of really great work.”
Continuing on the topic of sexual harassment, Streep also shed light on the allegations against Dustin Hoffman. She said that Dustin Hoffman overstepped their professional relationship while on the set of the 1979 movie “Kramer vs Kramer” when he slapped her for real during their first take. She added that, “the slap went too far.”
“This is tricky because when you’re an actor, you’re in a scene, you have to feel free. I’m sure that I have inadvertently hurt people in physical scenes. But there’s a certain amount of forgiveness in that. But this was my first movie, and it was my first take in my first movie, and he just slapped me. And you see it in the movie,” she said. “It was overstepping. But I think those things are being corrected in this moment. And they’re not politically corrected; they’re fixed. They will be fixed, because people won’t accept it anymore. So that’s a good thing.”
This is not the first time that Streep has had a public problem with Hoffman on the set of “Kramer vs Kramer.” In an interview from 1979, she complained that he grabbed her breast during their first meeting. While he’s since apologised, the topic resurfaced when Hoffman came under the spotlight for the recent claims of harassment against him. However, Streep’s rep said that she accepted his apology at the time and considers that matter closed.
80-year-old Hoffman has also been accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct and harassment.
