Liam Neeson is the latest celebrity to misunderstand and misread society’s current support of victims of sexual assault and misconduct speaking out, revealing his tone-deaf thoughts on the phenomenon in a recent interview on The Late Late Show.
Speaking on the recent outpouring of allegations made within Hollywood against some of his peers, Neeson suggested that movement was nothing more than a “bit of a witch hunt”. The famed actor went on to suggest that claims made against Dustin Hoffman were unfair, due to his actions being mostly ‘childhood stuff’.
“There are some people, famous people, being suddenly accused of touching some girl’s knee or something, and suddenly they’re being dropped from their program. I think Dustin Hoffman … I’m not saying I’ve done similar things like what he did, you know … apparently touched another girl’s breasts and stuff, but it’s childhood stuff.” His claims sound eerily similar to that of Marilyn Manson, who claimed that #MeToo would ‘unnecessarily ruin a lot of people’s lives’.
Watch the interview below.
Shirley Manson, frontwoman of pioneering 90s rock act Garbage, has taken to Twitter to call out Neeson’s ignorance, saying he “couldn’t be more wrong”, explaining that the movement is founded upon accountability. She also went on to reprimand those supporting Neeson’s claims.
No Liam Nelson you couldn’t be more wrong. There is no witch hunt. Just a bunch of privileged men being held accountable for their actions.💄
— Garbage (@garbage) January 13, 2018
The gentleman doth protest too much, methinks. 💅🏻
— Garbage (@garbage) January 13, 2018
Said a man.
— Garbage (@garbage) January 13, 2018
Manson has been vocal about the mistreatment of women within the music and entertainment industry previously, saying back in 2012 that “There’s a lot of girls now who are disempowered, they’re not being giving a lot of chances. They are worked really hard, they are wrung dry on tour, then given new songs, which are written by man to start the process all over again”. Since then, the paradigm in the music industry has truly shifted, with women openly speaking on, and acting towards equality – although most are on the same wavelength, it’s clear with claims made like these that prominent figures in the industry are still yet to re-shape their outlooks.
Watch Garbage perform ‘Cherry Lips’ at the 2002 Big Day Out.
