Tom Hanks has never worked with Harvey Weinstein, but he wasn’t surprised to hear how he’s treated numerous women over the past few decades.
In an interview with The New York Times titled “Hollywood’s Most Decent Fell on Weinstein, Trump and History” published Wednesday, Hanks admits he knows plenty of rich and powerful people who act like Weinstein did.
“I’ve never worked with Harvey,” he began. “But, aah, it all just sort of fits, doesn’t it?”
REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
Although Hanks didn’t work with him, many people in Hollywood did and several of them covered up for him. When asked why that is, Hanks pointed to Weinstein’s position of power.
“Isn’t it part and parcel to all of society somehow, that people in power get away with this?” Hanks responded. “Look, I don’t want to rag on Harvey but so obviously something went down there. You can’t buy, ‘Oh, well, I grew up in the ’60s and ’70s and so therefore . . .’ I did, too. So I think it’s like, well, what do you want from this position of power? I know all kinds of people that just love hitting on, or making the lives of underlings some degree of miserable, because they can.”
Hanks then elaborated on what led Weinstein to this behavior with a quote.
“Somebody great said this, either Winston Churchill, Immanuel Kant or Oprah: ‘When you become rich and powerful, you become more of what you already are.'”
“So I would say, there’s an example of how that’s true,” Hanks explained. “Just because you’re rich and famous and powerful doesn’t mean you aren’t in some ways a big fat ass. Excuse me, take away ‘fat.’ But I’m not, you know, I’m not the first person to say Harvey’s a bit of an ass.”
REUTERS/Axel Schmidt
“Poor Harvey — I’m not going to say poor Harvey, Jesus,” Hanks stumbled. “Isn’t it kind of amazing that it took this long? I’m reading it and I’m thinking ‘You can’t do that to Ashley Judd! Hey, I like her. Don’t do that. That ain’t fair. Not her, come on. Come on!’”
Well, if that’s the way he really feels about it, perhaps Hanks should do something about all those “kinds of people” he knows that behave similarly. Maybe he could save the next Ashley Judd from a Weinstein-like encounter.
