More Hollywood artists are speaking out against Harvey Weinstein in the wake of a New York Times investigative report alleging the producer of sexual harassment over a period of three decades.
Ben Affleck, whose career was launched by the 1997 Weinstein-produced film “Good Will Hunting,” posted a tweet on Tuesday afternoon.
“I am saddened and angry that a man who I worked with used his position of power to intimidate, sexually harass and manipulate many women over decades,” Affleck wrote in part.
Jennifer Lawrence, who won an Academy Award in 2013 for the Weinstein-produced film “Silver Linings Playbook,” told Variety on Monday that she “was deeply disturbed to hear the news about Harvey Weinstein’s behavior.”
“I worked with Harvey five years ago and I did not experience any form of harassment personally, nor did I know about any of these allegations,” Lawrence’s statement read. “This kind of abuse is inexcusable and absolutely upsetting.”
Related: Meryl Streep speaks out on ‘disgraceful’ Harvey Weinstein allegations
George Clooney spoke with The Daily Beast Monday night and called the accusations against the man he has known for 20 years “indefensible.”
“[Weinstein] gave me my first big break as an actor in films on ‘From Dusk Till Dawn,’ he gave me my first big break as a director with ‘Confessions of a Dangerous Mind’,” Clooney said. “We’ve had dinners, we’ve been on location together, we’ve had arguments. But I can tell you that I’ve never seen any of this behavior — ever.”
Clooney said he had heard rumors back in the 1990s “that certain actresses had slept with Harvey to get a role.”
“It seemed like a way to smear the actresses and demean them by saying that they didn’t get the jobs based on their talent, so I took those rumors with a grain of salt,” the actor said. “But the other part of this, the part we’re hearing now about eight women being paid off, I didn’t hear anything about that and I don’t know anyone that did.”
“That’s a whole other level and there’s no way you can reconcile that,” Clooney added. “There’s nothing to say except that it’s indefensible.”
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