On Wednesday, 13 Reasons Why star Katherine Langford stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to talk about season 2 of the Netflix series and what it was like to be nominated for a Golden Globe. However, those weren't the only things on her mind. In a rare move for celebrities, Langford was the one who steered the conversation towards the Time's Up movement, rather than the interviewer, recounting the meeting she had with other talented actresses ahead of the Golden Globes to discuss Time's Up talking points and ways they can make change in the industry.
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"I was just going to say, also, it was such a poignant night as well with the Time's Up movement," she said after Fallon asked her about the award show. "It's something that I think is so inspiring and I was so grateful to be a part of."
Reese Witherspoon was the one who invited her to the Time's Up meeting, where Langford says she spoke with actress Brie Larson as well as Witherspoon about the movement and "started sobbing and crying like an idiot."
This was clearly an important meeting that changed Langford in many ways. The next logical question would be about what they discussed at the meeting, or what in particular moved her, or what she learned from that night that she's going to take with her going forward. Instead we got "I love that you're enjoying all this stuff" and we moved on. She's not a kid on a playground, and going to the Time's Up meeting wasn't a field trip. She's an actress who's just as much involved in the movement as any other, and when she speaks, we should listen.
This is not the first time a young actress has been cut off from offering her opinion on Hollywood's reckoning. On the 2018 Golden Globes red carpet, Stranger Things actress Sadie Sink was repeatedly interrupted when trying to bring the discussion to Time's up.
"It’s crazy. But what a great Golden Globes to be at, with all the —" she said before being interrupted. She later tried again, saying "I’m interested to see everyone in black, and their different take[s] on it. I think it’s great." There were no follow up questions.
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Even in difficult situations, millennials have handled the movement better and faster than those that came before. Upon receiving criticism for his role in Woody Allen's upcoming movie A Rainy Day in New York, 22-year-old Timothée Chalamet said he would be donating his salary to Time's Up, RAINN, and the LGBT center in New York.
"I am learning that a good role isn't the only criteria for accepting a job," he wrote on Instagram. "That has become much clearer to me in the past few months, having witnessed the birth of a powerful movement intent on ending injustice, inequality, and above all, silence."
In a world where the Oscars barely mentioned Time's Up (not to mention gave an award to an accused rapist), where celebrities are bailing on interviews about sexual harassment, or only talking about it when put in the hot seat, why are we not listening to the next generation and letting them share the thoughts they clearly want to give? It doesn't make sense to wonder why nobody talked about this for so long, and then tune out when someone finally does, just because they are young. If anything, they should be the ones doing most of the talking, because they're the ones that will be taking over. And if they're already handling the movement with more care, respect, and thoughtfulness that their predecessors, why wait for millennials to change Hollywood when they could, and want to, be doing it now?
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