Meryl Streep wants Melania and Ivanka Trump to speak out on sexual harassment and assault.
Streep, who was heavily criticized by people who claimed that she knew about Harvey Weinstein’s behavior and did nothing about it, told the New York Times, “I don’t want to hear about the silence of me. 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.”
Considering the many women that have come forward with accusations against Donald Trump, the silence of the women around him is deafening and deserves to be called out.
“I didn’t know”
In that same interview, Streep insisted that she had no idea Weinstein was praying on young women in the industry.
“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,” she said.
She added, “I did think he was having girlfriends. But when I heard rumors about actresses, I thought that that was a way of denigrating the actress and her ability to get the job. That really raised my hackles. I didn’t know that he was in any way abusing people.”
What’s more, Streep seemed to suggest that she had experienced harassment during her younger years as well.
“I have experienced things, mostly when I was young and pretty. Nobody comes on to me [now],” she said. “So I wouldn’t have had that more recently. But back in the day, when everybody was doing cocaine, there was a lot of [expletive] behavior that was inexcusable. But now that people are older, and more sober, there has to be forgiveness, and that’s the way I feel about it.”