IN AN INTERVIEW with NBC’s Today show, Sean Penn shared his thoughts on the #MeToo movement which was established in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal last October.
While promoting his new Hulu series, The First, the Oscar-winning actor, alongside his co-star Natasha McElhone, was encouraged to discuss whether the #MeToo movement informed the show’s premise which depicts Natasha’s character as the visionary.
And as far as Sean is concerned, there is no correlation.
I would like to think that none of it was influenced by what they would call the movement of #MeToo. I think it is influenced by things that are developing in terms of the empowerment of women, acknowledging each other and being acknowledged by men.
Arguing that the movement was largely ‘shouldered by a receptacle of the salacious’, the actor believes that the endeavour has had a polarising effect within society.
The spirit of much of what has been the #MeToo movement is to divide men and women.
He went on to say that women he has spoken to off-camera are of a similar opinion, adding: “Women that I talk to, that I listen to, of all walks of life, is that there is a common sense that is not represented at all in the discussion when it come to the media discussion of it.”
I’m very suspicious of a movement that gets glommed onto, in great stridency and rage, and without nuance. And even when people try to discuss it in a nuanced way, the nuance itself is attacked.
Dismissing the idea that there are too many shades of grey within the movement, Sean argued:
I think it’s too black and white. In most things that are very important, it’s really good to just slow down.
You can watch the full interview here.
