‘I’ve bullied women. I’ve overlooked women. I’ve underestimated women.'
The past few weeks have seen men and women speaking out about misconduct, in Hollywood and beyond.
While receiving an award of honour from the Paley Centre for Media on Thursday, Emmy Award winning actor Alec Baldwin used his time on stage to speak about the mistreatment of women, admitting to bullying women in the industry himself and calling for change from others.
‘I certainly have treated women in a very sexist way,’ the 59-year-old actor explained.
‘I’ve bullied women. I’ve overlooked women. I’ve underestimated women. Not as a rule, [but] from time to time I’ve done what a lot of men do, which is when you don’t treat women the same way you treat men. You don’t. I’m from a generation where you really don’t and I’d like that to change. I really would like that to change.’
Calling for change, Baldwin explained, ’I think it’s important for us to try to make the workplace and beyond not only comfortable and right and fair and appropriate but as productive, as well.’
He continued: ’I think a lot of what we’re dealing with within this issue is hurting our business. It’s making it less productive.’
The past weeks have seen sexual allegations come out against big Hollywood heavyweights from Harvey Weinstein to James Toback, launching global social media movements from #MeToo to #ItWasMe.
Baldwin was one of the actors to speak out about the allegations, explaining, ‘I knew of certain things that there were rumours of things happening to people, but I didn’t necessarily know the scope when you hear the hundreds and hundreds of women who are complaining about this.’
He continued: ‘It’s been a very eye-opening experience for me personally. We’ve got to be vigilant in a new way to make sure that everybody is comfortable and that we get the job done together that we’re there to do.’
