Cate Blanchett has expressed her disappointment that the #MeToo movement "got killed very quickly" in Hollywood, during a conversation at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday. The acclaimed actress, who has been a vocal advocate for gender equality, reflected on the rapid decline of the movement's momentum in the entertainment industry.
Blanchett's Remarks on #MeToo
Speaking in a wide-ranging staged discussion, Blanchett lamented that the tide of #MeToo has been turned in Hollywood. "It got killed very quickly, which I think is interesting," she said. "There are a lot of people with platforms who are able to speak up with relative safety and say this has happened to me. And the so-called average woman on the street, person on the street, is saying MeToo. Why does that get shut down?"
Red Carpet Protest at Cannes
In 2018, when Blanchett served as president of the jury at Cannes, she participated in a red-carpet protest. She and 81 other women stood on the steps of the Palais des Festivals, symbolically representing the number of female directors who had been selected for Cannes' competition lineup over the years. During the same period, 1,866 male directors had been chosen. Blanchett emphasised the ongoing disparity, stating, "I'm still on film sets and I do the headcount every day. There's 10 women and there's 75 men every morning."
Homogeneous Workplaces
Blanchett added, "I love men, but what happens is the jokes become the same. You just have to brace yourself slightly, and I'm used to that, but it just gets boring for everybody when you walk into a homogeneous workplace." Her comments highlight the persistent challenges in achieving gender parity in the film industry, despite the initial surge of the #MeToo movement.
