Sir Michael Caine thinks the #MeToo movement means no producer would "dare do anything sexually."
The 85-year-old actor believes that the social media campaign against sexual harassment and sexual abuse, which stemmed from accusations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, is a good thing as "actresses are safe now" because any perpetrators will have been warned away.
Speaking to the Radio Times about Weinstein, he said: "I did three pictures with him. Harvey was a single character in himself. But there is one great thing if it can be described like that, about Harvey and his behaviour. It’s that actresses are safe now. No producer would dare to do anything sexually, because he knows he’s going to wind up in court, which is exactly where Harvey is."
The ‘King of Thieves’ actor has revealed that although he knew about the sordid ‘casting couch’ – where actress would receive parts in exchange for sexual favours – he did not know the full extent of the problem.
He said: "In Hollywood, we were all aware of the casting couch. It was almost a joke. We knew it existed. But my view of the casting couch was that a young lady went to do an audition, the producer said, ‘Well you’ve got the part if you did this’, she said ‘I’m not doing that’ and he said ‘well you haven’t got the part’ and she left. I thought it was terribly unfair that a talented actress might not get a part because she wouldn’t do something sexual with the producer. But it happened and there was nothing I could do about it. I was a nobody in Hollywood. I didn’t have the power of the big producers. But I never thought there were any actual physical attacks."
Sir Michael Caine praises #MeToo movement
