Cate Blanchett laments MeToo era getting 'killed too quickly’ | RISING

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:03][music] Two-time Oscar winner Kate Blanchett recently said that she feels the Me Too movement was killed very quickly after its rise in 2017.

[00:00:14]>> Speaking at the Can Film Festival in France, Blanchett added, quote, "There are a lot of people who 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 is saying, "Me, too. Why does that get shut down? What is revealed is a systemic layer of abuse not only in this industry but in all industries and if you don't identify a problem you can't solve the problem. Lanchett also talked about the disparity between the number of men and women on the sets of movies and TV shows. She says she'll often do a headcount and find that there's roughly 75 men and only 10 women on set. She added, "I love men, but what happens is the jokes become the same.

[00:00:54]It's boring for everybody when you walk into a homogeneous workplace. I think it has an effect on the work. Um, I look, as an actress, I love Kate Blanchett.

[00:01:04]One of my absolute favorites. So many roles that are iconic. Uh, she's amazing in Lord of the Rings as Galadriel. I can't picture anyone else ever playing that role. Uh, she was great in the Marvel universe as, uh, Hela, the antagonist to Thor in Thor Ragnarok, movie everybody likes. Her looks are great. She has just striking presence.

[00:01:24]uh great role as uh Queen Elizabeth uh in uh that movie. Phenomenal actress, so great. Could not disagree with her more.

[00:01:33]Uh the the the Me Too movement could have not died swiftly enough for me. The reason it went off the rails, it is everybody started accusing everything everybody of everything with very thin evidence standards. And I think it went off the rails approximately when like Aziz Onsari got cancelled for going on a date with someone that was not like ideal or whatever.

[00:01:54]>> And Ryan Serest around that time they both were getting accused and they were like >> it went after Ryan Serest, my twin.

[00:01:59][laughter] >> Oh yeah. What are you the bootleg Ryan Serest?

[00:02:02]>> That's what they say.

[00:02:04]Uh yeah, it it was just it was grievance and um you know, believe all women was a bad slogan, I think, because >> um you can respect people and you can hear people out, but no no category of accusation or claim deserves automatic belief because people do lie and exaggerate. Not just on this, not on mis sexual mistreatment or not just women, but like all people are capable of great deceptions. We've seen it in practice all the time. So it was a if we were act and if we were actually taking it seriously then Joe Biden should have never been president because he got accused too and so did many other people on the Democratic side and that just all got you know well we don't trust that one. Well, I think that the Me Too movement was largely extremely successful and it brought the pendulum somewhere to the middle and then it swung like you said it overcorrected a bit. So I think that what it did is call attention to something that was overlooked for a lot of history specifically in the film industry where you heard more and more people. I mean we have Harvey Weinstein accusations and then convictions coming out of that.

[00:03:18]There were real things that happened and real predators that existed around the space.

[00:03:21]>> That one went a little far too.

[00:03:23]>> Okay. But he was predatory and he's in jail now. So what do we Why are we You don't think he should be in jail? Is that what you're saying?

[00:03:30]>> Uh I don't think he should be in jail.

[00:03:32]No.

[00:03:33]>> Okay. Well, I'm going to park that there. I'm going to let you just people online attack you for that thought. But um that >> I mean he's rotting away in Rikers or something.

[00:03:41]>> Okay. We had that we had like R. Kelly going to jail over this who was not only uh doing that but with children. So there's a lot of layers of things that happened.

[00:03:49]>> Children is a different category.

[00:03:51]Criminal. Yes. there are layers of uh things that came out of this and I thought it was effective. Um I think that where we are now is still at an interesting point where people haven't forgotten but everything is not just automatically just a done deal like people's careers are ruined because of statements like we have to investigate and find all the information around stories but certainly take women's stories as credible because historically they were overlooked and ignored and that's why there needed to be a movement in the first place. That's why movements come about because large communities of swats of people are ignored ignored. I saw this article in the New York Times that I wanted to bring up came out yesterday actually that says MAGA women are leading the ME 2.0 movement in Washington. And it's fascinating because it's true. I think it still exists specifically now. It's happening in government. They're saying Lauren Lauren Boowbert, Nancy Mace and Napoleon Luna.

[00:04:40]Uh they drove with the resignation last month of two of their colleagues, you know, Tony Gonzalez uh the Republican from Texas and Eric Swallwell a Democrat. So, you're seeing like a reckoning and more people's names being brought up. Uh, but it's not accepted. I mean, anybody who's doing egregious acts in Congress kind of needs to be on high alert because you have so many women who are like, "Well, we waited years to do this." And specifically coming from the MAGA movement is interesting. But that means certainly to me that it's not dead on a political level, which maybe it came to this industry.

[00:05:10]>> Densing a couple different, okay?

[00:05:12]Because it all gets rounded into the same kind of behavior. There's sexual assault is a crime and should be treated and considered such these are the things they're leading the char I mean was sort of workplace harassment that's part of the me too movement also can be a crime but it's not but it's not even all the criminality of it should people be in high positions if they're taking advantage of entry- level staff of actors that want to act that's harassment on set that's harassment in office so no one Everyone needs to go to jail matter and you should >> right you should calling attention to the fact that >> lose your job if you do that but that's where I don't want to throw you in which is why my >> but the whole point is that women can stand up and say hey that happened to me too I was just trying to be a journalist and my boss was sexualized in the job for some reason when I was just trying to write words right like these things exist in spaces where people are like listen I was trying to do one thing and I was harassed in a way that I was made to feel uncomfortable and didn't want to go report because maybe I'll lose my job. I mean, it it's not always black and white where you can go report and think that you're going to get a positive outcome. Most times HR is trying to figure out the best way to protect the company. They're not trying to figure out how to blow the employee story up and get it as a New York Times front page. So, even in workplaces when it's brought up as a conversation, there's that level. Then there's the criminal level. But I think the conversation is the whole point of the movie.

[00:06:37]>> Sure. But there's a mechanism to do it in in a workplace, right? There's HR department. There is a series of we all go through this like most Americans go through a training module when they join a company that tells you what >> and they pay deep attention to >> that are a little silly to be frank. We all >> walked in a room.

[00:06:56]>> Yeah.

[00:06:56]>> Man said nice skirt. Is that okay?

[00:06:59]>> As a as a quite silly. Yes. Um, that's different than trying to say, you know, 25 years ago this person did this thing to me and well, how how do we know? How can we substantiate it? How can we you can just have in your gut I believe him or I don't, but what should be done from that standpoint on? I mean, the Brett Kavanaaugh one is really the one that comes to mind as something that was hard where I don't know how do you It's not that I found her claim so extraordinarily unbelievable or anything. I just there's nothing to corroborate it. And then how is he supposed to recall something that happened so long ago that he clearly doesn't really remember? And I don't know I don't know what to do with it.

[00:07:43]You know what I'm saying? Is is there's no it's not being heard in a in a criminal case. would be non-starter because it's just there too much time has elapsed. It's not we can't adjudicate that. So, we're just adjudicating in the public square. It's based on your gut of how you feel about it. I don't know what to do. And and that's when in my view it started to go off the off the rails particularly like then when we're considering adolescent behavior. Obviously, violent criminal adolescent or violent adolescent behavior you should still be culpable for years later, but um misconduct of a lesser nature of a certainly just words you use or something of that nature. I think there should be broad forgiveness for uh because kids are so surveiled these days and their every waking thought is recorded forever. Um there's a lot of efforts to get pe young people in trouble for that stuff. What words? I think you're you're widening this the the net.

[00:08:38]>> Well, I think they were widening it.

[00:08:40]>> I think me too is specifically like this happened to me in a way that's like >> harassment even deeper assault criminal and we're bringing light to the issue to to let women know you don't have to suffer in silence because you know that a lot of the silence came from first not being believed second I mean literally when people have gone to the police it's been like well what do you want me to do about this? So, you know, there's [clears throat] several instances where nothing happened for the people that reported in a timely fashion. So, why would when you create that kind of environment and that's the consistent outcome more often than not, why would people report these things? And then the whole society is looking at them in a terrible way for saying it later. When you get older, you get braver. You get more knowledge, more fearless to speak up. But you also get more. We all and again I am not at all claiming this is unique to just this category of offenses or recollections. But we are all prone to exaggerate the extent to which we were wronged in our recollection. The more time that goes on. I am I am liable to this. Everyone is when you start telling the bad things that happened you go it was the most outrageous example of miscarriage of justice.

[00:09:50]>> I totally disagree with that. I think the more the >> No, it's you can't it's true. It's psychologically.

[00:09:54]>> May I May I for me as I separate more from an issue like that happened to me in the past, I can say look at it from a perspective of being a little bit older and see how I contributed to certain situations. And this has never been a one situation, but it's been like, okay, let's say I blew up at an employer. All right, I I contributed to that in this way, right? It wasn't just only them.

[00:10:16]They're the worst place to work. No, also I added to that by X. And I can look at it and still say, "Eh, I would never want to work there again." But also, I wasn't, you know, most pleasant all the time.

[00:10:27]>> I I Well, that's to your credit, but I think it really it's human nature to in the same way that we, you know, people's the the the uh the trope is the fishing story, right? The fish gets bigger over time when you talk about what you caught when you were fishing.

[00:10:44]>> That's the same way about our the stories just get more dramatic, more sensationalized. It's human nature and it's psychological and I I think that there's can be a factor to that here. I I think we were giving a certain kind of power to having been wronged which will which was inspiring people to look for ways that they were wronged in order to >> no >> claim to be.

[00:11:09]>> We were given power to people having a voice who felt voiceless for years. And so that doesn't mean that immediately you need to put someone in jail, but it means like your voice is heard over here and we'll at least look into this thing >> and you know you're believed by somebody if not the police.

[00:11:25]>> All right, a lot more to talk about on Rising. Please stay with us.