Iconic actress Michelle Pfeiffer chimed in on the sexual assault and harassment scandal consuming Hollywood, telling the BCC on Sunday that abuse of women in the film industry is “systemic.”
“I have never worked with Harvey,” Pfeiffer said of disgraced indy film mogul Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused of sexual assault or harassment by more the 60 women. “I have had some experiences, and I have to say, since this has all come out there really hasn’t been one woman that I’ve talked to who hasn’t had an experience. And it just really goes to show you how systemic the problem is.”
“I know I’m having conversations with women I’ve known my whole life and we have never discussed this and it is coming out,” said the Academy Award-nominated actress, who has graced the small and silver screens for decades, finding breakthrough success in the early 80s in Grease 2 and Scarface.
Pfeiffer believes that there’s an enormous amount of course-correcting being done to root out her industry’s problem with sexual misconduct.
“Oh, I think all men are thinking,” the actress said laughing. “There’s a lot of reflection going on with men and women. I was thinking myself, thinking back and thinking, well, you know, where’s that line between, ‘Oh I got hit on’ and ‘I was inappropriately [approached]'”?
Pfeiffer’s Murder on the Orient Express co-star Olivia Colman said the “young women in their 20s … are purposefully targeted” for abuse by men more powerful than them.
Murder on the Orient Express, a crime thriller directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Josh Gad, and Daisy Ridley, hits theaters Nov. 10.
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