Actress Meryl Streep says curiosity over her silence regarding disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein should be directed at other women: First Lady Melania Trump and Ivanka Trump.
The New York Times interviewed actor Tom Hanks and Ms. Streep for their upcoming movie “The Post,” but the conversation soon turned to Hollywood’s sexual misconduct scandals and the #MeToo movement. The Academy Award winning actress said that scrutiny over her muted early response is misguided.
“I don’t want to hear about the silence of me,” Ms. Streep told the newspaper for an interview published Wednesday. “I want to hear about the silence of Melania Trump. I want to hear from her. She has so much that’s valuable to say. And so does Ivanka. I want her to speak now.”
The actress claimed that she needed time to reflect upon her “own sense of cluelessness” after the Times initially published its Weinstein exposé in October.
“Somebody told me that on ’Morning Joe’ they were screaming that I haven’t responded yet,” she said. “I don’t have a Twitter thing or — handle, whatever. And I don’t have Facebook. I really had to think. Because it really underlined my own sense of cluelessness, and also how evil, deeply evil, and duplicitous, a person he was, yet such a champion of really great work.”
Mr. Hanks said he was “never knowingly complicit” in covering up years of sexual misconduct allegations, but said he also “wasn’t oblivious” to the industry’s problems.
Ms. Streep insisted that she heard “rumors about actresses,” but never knew about abusive behavior.
“The Post,” directed by Steven Spielberg, is set for wide release in North America on Jan. 11.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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