Dame Judi Dench doesn’t understand why y’all can’t separate the art from the accused sexual assaulter.
The legendary actress doubled down on her belief that the legacies of Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein should remain untainted by the sexual misconduct scandals that have plagued each man’s career.
Dench’s remarks came during an interview with Britain’s Radio Times, where the 84-year-old expressed concern over people dismissing the accused predators’ bodies of work in the #MeToo era.
What’s even worse, according to the Oscar winner, is the new practice of erasing an accused actor from a film he had already shot — like how Spacey was edited out of the 2017 film All the Money in the World and replaced by Christopher Plummer.
Related: Spacey’s Legal Team Claims Sexual Assault Accuser Erased Evidence!
As for that removal, Dench mused:
“What kind of agony is that? Are we going to negate 10 years at the Old Vic and everything that he did [as artistic director] – how wonderful he’s been in all those films?”
For those who don’t know, Spacey served as the Old Vic’s artistic director from 2004-2015 — during which time, the London theater said he was facing 20 accusations of “inappropriate behavior.”
To be clear, the Red Joan star didn’t defend either of the men nor reject the accusations of sexual assault that have been levied against them. She’s just defending the work they created.
She said of Weinstein:
“Are we just not going to see all those films that Harvey produced? You cannot deny somebody a talent.”
Maybe not. But if that “talent” was fueled by predatory behavior, is it really a talent we want to be celebrating?
Dench apparently thinks so. She went on to compare Weinstein and Spacey to other scandalous artists like Noël Coward, a British playwright and actor who was accused of predatory behavior, and Caravaggio, a famous Italian painter and murderer — suggesting their art’s contributions to society outweighed any heinous acts they may or may not have committed.
She argued:
“You might as well never look at a Caravaggio painting. You might as well never have gone to see Noël Coward.”
Sigh.
Look, Judez, no one’s trying to take Good Will Hunting or the first five seasons of House of Cards away from you. That’s not what #MeToo is trying to do.
#MeToo is about whistleblowing the people who have abused their power for years and removing them from their positions so they don’t keep sexually assaulting (or in some cases, murdering) people. It’s so others who may be in similar positions understand that we as a society aren’t letting them get away with it anymore.
Sure, an effect of that might be less people finally getting around to watching The Usual Suspects… but aren’t our Netflix queues backed up enough as it is?
What do U think about the thespian’s remarks?
[Image via WENN]
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