Harvey Weinstein is the hot-button topic Meryl Streep and her daughters discuss around the dining room table.
Since The New York Times published an expose claiming Weinstein had sexually harassed and assaulted women in Hollywood for decades, the entertainment industry has been rocked by scandal, with women and men coming forward to also accuse James Toback, Kevin Spacey, Ed Westwick, Steven Seagal and now Louis C.K. of sexual misconduct.
Meryl has been vocal in her support for the alleged victims, and reveals it’s a topic she often discusses with her daughters Mamie, Grace and Louisa with husband Don Gummer. They also have son Henry.
“As a mother, what do you sit around talking about at the dining room table (with your) three daughters?” Anna Wintour asked Meryl during a video chat for Vogue.
“Harvey Weinstein. That’s all we talk about. I mean, you know… horrible!” she stated.
“We want them to be free, we want them to be proud, we want them to be female. But you put them in danger by not informing them about the male gaze and how it works on young girls.”
Anna then asked the triple Oscar winner if she thought the recent events regarding predatory workplace behavior will advance the feminist agenda and opportunities for women, or set it back.
“This moment is absolutely thrilling,” she enthused. “This is a door that will not be closed we’ve got a foot in there now, and it will be very difficult for people to conduct their lives the way they have in the past. ‘Oh that’s just locker room talk. Oh that’s just the way men are’. No, it’s not. We’re civilised people and we learn from our mistakes.”
Meryl added that she thinks the upcoming 2018 awards season, which her new film The Post is hotly tipped to do well in, will be more “aware”.
“I think it might lead to the moment where, at least in my business, where people walk into a room and they look around and see three women and nine men and they think there’s something wrong. That it’s off,” she shared.
