Tessa Thompson has spoken out against Harvey Weinstein and the “systemic” culture of disrespect towards women in Hollywood.
The New York Times published an account of sexual harassment allegations against the movie mogul going back 30 years - with more and more women from the industry coming forward to talk about their experiences.
Thompson, who plays Valkyrie in the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok, has spoken up about her own disrespectful treatment working with male filmmakers.
“It’s something that I have experienced in a more benign sense by just feeling like I’m not treated with the same respect, professional respect as my male cohorts are,” the actress told The Independent.
“Sometimes you can get so anaesthetised you sort of think that’s the way it is and because you love what you do you just work through it,” she said
Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and Romolo Garai joined Rose McGowan and Ashley Judd in revealing their own disturbing experience with Weinstein and Thompson praised them for it.
“I’m really inspired by the women who are brave enough to talk about it and also the women who don’t want to, and I really admire the men who have stepped forward,” she explained.
“I’m really glad one of them is Mark Ruffalo because he is the best ever.”
Ruffalo stars opposite Thompson in the new Thor movie and tweeted his disgust about the Weinstein allegations on Sunday.
“To be clear what Harvey Weinstein did was a disgusting abuse of power and horrible,” the actor posted. “I hope we are now seeing the beginning of the end of these abuses.”
Weinstein representative Sallie Hofmeister told The New Yorker that “any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein.”
“Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances. Mr. Weinstein obviously can't speak to anonymous allegations, but with respect to any women who have made allegations on the record, Mr. Weinstein believes that all of these relationships were consensual,” said Ms Hofmeister.
Thompson, who has been a growing presence in Hollywood thanks to her appearances in Dear White People, Creed and HBO’s Westworld TV series, says that it’s important that the conversation surrounding the allegations is happening now.
“I feel it is a long time coming and certainly in the context of Weinstein it is something that has been going on for a very long time,” she said. “Now that it’s in the public consciousness I hope it opens a bigger conversation because I hope that now we can begin to say that it doesn’t have to be this way we all have the power to change it.
“I think it’s something that we all need to talk about and it’s something that is systemic and it exists and Weinstein is not the only one”.
