Molly Ringwald doesn't believe Harvey Weinstein 'situation could exist today'
Molly Ringwald gave her thoughts on cancel culture and the #MeToo movement in a wide-spanning interview with The Guardian on Monday.
The 55-year-old actress said that she is skeptical of the overall progress made in show business more than five years after the downfall of Harvey Weinstein and a number of other powerful Hollywood figures linked with sexual misconduct.
The star of 80s classics including Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink compared the institutional shifts in the entertainment industry to the questionably-effective methods of how schools deal with bullying.
'They say: "We have a zero-tolerance policy,"' she said. 'After that, it still exists, but it goes a little bit underground. It's a bit harder to get caught. It gets harder to say: "Is this bullying or not?"'
Ringwald said 'it's a bit like that with #MeToo,' which has ensured an abuser the magnitude of Weinstein's could no longer operate, but has also impacted the careers of people who might not have been deserving of such a fate.
The latest: Molly Ringwaldt, 55, gave her thoughts on cancel culture and the #MeToo movement - and why she thinks things might not be effective - in a wide-spanning interview with The Guardian on Monday. Pictured Monday in NYC
'I don't think a Harvey Weinstein situation could exist now,' the Roseville, California native said. 'But, again, a lot of people have gotten swept up in "cancellation," and I worry about that; it's unsustainable, in a way.
The Feud actress noted that 'some people have been unfairly cancelled and they don't belong in the same category as somebody like Harvey Weinstein.'
The Oscar-winning producer's years of sexual misconduct spanning more than 80 accusers was exposed via a series of stories in the fall of 2017, eventually spurring sex assault prosecutions and convictions on both coasts.
Weinstein, 70, was sentenced in 2020 to 23 years in New York, and in February was sentenced to an additional 16 years in prison.
Ringwald said that she's concerned overcorrection on the issue could further put people off and stand in the way of effecting real change.
'What it ends up doing is make people roll their eyes,' she said. 'That's my worry. I do want things to change, for real. Workplaces should be places where everyone can feel safe – not just in Hollywood, but everywhere. Particularly Americans.'
Ringwald commented on what she feels is a tendency for people in the United States to take things to extremes.
'We can never do things incrementally; we're so binary, so all or nothing,' said the actress. 'We're basically a bunch of puritans.'
The star of 80s classics including Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink compared the institutional shifts in the entertainment industry to the questionably-effective methods of how schools deal with bullying
The Feud actress noted that 'some people have been unfairly cancelled and they don't belong in the same category as somebody like Harvey Weinstein'
Ringwald said, 'I don't think a Harvey Weinstein situation could exist now,' in reference to the convicted rapist, pictured in court in LA last fall
The star of 80s classics including Pretty in Pink (pictured) said she wasn't quite comfortable with the characters she was cast in during her years in the John Hughes films
Ringwald in the interview also spoke about how she wasn't quite comfortable with the characters she was cast in during her years in the John Hughes films.
'I was projected as this perfect, sweet American girl next door,' she said. 'Which wasn't me, but I was figuring out who I was, too. I was pretty young.'
Acknowledging the impact they have had on her life, she said 'there will be some people who will always see me that way, until I do something that's as big as one of those movies – and it would be pretty hard to top those in terms of box office.'
Source: Daily Mail
