Jennifer Lawrence considered Harvey Weinstein to be a father figure.
The 27-year-old actress has admitted it took her a "moment to process" the sexual harassment allegations against the disgraced producer – who has been accused of sexual misconduct by over 80 women in a 30 year period – because he was "paternal" toward her, and had "only ever been nice" to her.
She said: "Just speaking for myself, I had known him since I was 20, and he had only ever been nice to me – except for the moments that he wasn’t, and then I called him an a-hole, and we moved on. He was paternal to me. So I needed a moment to process everything because I thought I knew this guy, and then he’s being accused of rape."
The ‘Mother!’ actress insisted that whilst she was aware Weinstein, 65, was a "tough guy" and a "brute", she had never considered the possibility that he might have been abusing his power.
She added: "We all knew he was a dog, we knew that he was a … tough guy, a brute, a tough guy to negotiate with. I didn’t know that he was a rapist. And it’s so widespread, the abuse, from so many different people – it’s directors, it’s producers – that I think everybody needed to [process it]. Everybody needs to deal with this in their own way; everybody needs to heal."
Since the scandal involving Weinstein broke, Jennifer has been discussing ways to bring an end to sexual misconduct in Hollywood, and thinks there should be a "commission" which deals with complaints made by people who are "treated badly" on set.
In an interview conducted by Oprah Winfrey for The Hollywood Reporter magazine’s Women in Entertainment issue, the ‘Joy’ star said: "How can there be rules in place where there are certain ways that you just cannot treat people? Or a commission, somebody that they can call? If every A-list actor decides to join this commission, we know everybody in the industry. I know every studio head in town. If I’m on this commission, and [if] I get an email about somebody being treated badly on a set, I can send an email.
"We have to all put our heads together and figure out how to not let this moment go, not just be like, ‘Oh, well, that was crazy.’ Something has to really get done."
Jennifer Lawrence: Harvey Weinstein was paternal to me
