As the #MeToo movement has exemplified, Hollywood has had a problem with sexual misconduct for a very long time. Now, in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Sharp Objects star Amy Adams reveals her own past with inappropriate behavior from men in power.
"I think most women have experienced it, even if it's just feeling unsafe rejecting somebody," Adams told The Hollywood Reporter in her new interview alongside Sharp Objects creator Marti Noxon and the novel's author Gillian Flynn. "And apologizing, 'Oh, I'm so sorry, I must have been sending you the wrong signal,' when, really, it's like, 'No, I think I said I don't want to go out with you, I don't know how that's the wrong signal. I think we should just be friends and I'm not sure why you're at my doorstep,' it's that unsafe feeling."
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The American Hustle star also discussed how fear of how men might react towards her changed the roles she pursued.
"There's a reason I started playing nuns and virgins," Adams told the outlet. "I was like, 'I'm not putting up with that anymore.'"
While Adams made decisions in her own career in order to protect herself from inappropriate comments or advances, she told THR that she once attempted to protect a younger peer from a bad situation by asserting her own clout in the industry.
"Before [the accusations of sexual misconduct by Harvey Weinstein] came out, a young actress said to me, 'This is going on [with a male producer], is this weird?' And I'm like, 'Yeah, that's not okay,'" Adams revealed in the interview. "She didn't know what to do, and I said, 'Tell him I said hi,' because, unfortunately, I knew this person and I thought if he knows he can't create a silent victim, then maybe we remove that temptation."
Despite past hardships, it's encouraging to see women speaking out about a topic that, up until recently, was seldom discussed within the entertainment industry. With the #MeToo movement, Time's Up initiative, and more transparency in Hollywood overall, it is no longer only on women to look out for themselves. It's time everyone holds predatory people of power accountable.