Among the topics discussed during a CBS Sunday Morning segment hosted by Oprah Winfrey on the Time’s Up initiative was director and accused sexual predator Woody Allen.
Winfrey sat down with Reese Witherspoon, Kathleen Kennedy, Natalie Portman, America Ferrera, attorney Nina Shaw, Tracee Ellis Ross and producer Shonda Rhimes to discuss the impact their campaign has had in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
Of the topics discussed, Allen was brought up due to a series of tweets by Dylan Farrow during last weekend’s Golden Globes in which she said she hoped Allen’s time would have been up by now. Farrow has accused Allen of molesting her. Allen has denied the accusations.
“What would you want to say to her?” Winfrey asked the women.
“I hope so,” said Rhimes. “You know, I’ll be honest. I don’t know about anybody else, but I hope so.”
Added Kennedy, “I’d like to believe that time’s up for silence. We can start there.”
Winfrey also asked the powerful Hollywood women, “How do we as a society have a mature, nuanced conversation about how men and women should be relating to each other? Because there’s so many men and women now who are uncomfortable in their workplaces because of all that’s been uncovered and aren’t just really sure how to be. What do we say to them?”
“We’re humans. We’re all humans,” Portman said. “And I think it’s treating people as fellow humans and — and it’s not because you have a daughter that you respect a woman, it’s not because you have a wife or a sister, it’s because we’re human beings, whether we’re related to a man or not. We deserve the same respect.”
During the Golden Globes ceremony, while presenting for best director, Portman called out the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for selecting “all male” nominees in that category.
In response to the interview, Farrow took to Twitter to thank Winfrey, along with Witherspoon, Rhimes and Portman for her “belief and support.”
“Thank you @Oprah for your willingness to ask the hard questions and for being one of the first to move the needle on the issue of sexual abuse,” she wrote in part. She had previously tweeted that there have been some “brave and bold women” taking a stand with her in recent days.
“I want to acknowledge their integrity, their courage, and their exemplification of a new way forward. Thank you, it means the world,” Farrow wrote. Adding in a separate tweet, “I know that standing with me against Woody Allen is not easy in this industry. I know that I am asking for courage and even sacrifice. But if #TIMESUP truly stands with all victims, as it says it does, then that sacrifice is necessary to help convert this moment to a movement. To those who have already taken a stand and amplified my voice with theirs, there is a 7 year old girl inside of me who thanks you from the bottom of her heart.”
