Liam Neeson has been slammed for comments he made about the ongoing sexual harassment scandal, which saw several women making allegations against prominent Hollywood personalities for inappropriate behaviour. Neeson, while promoting his new film, The Commuter, said that there’s “a bit of a witch-hunt happening.”
“There’s some people, famous people, being suddenly accused of touching some girl’s knee or something, and suddenly they’re being dropped from their program or something,” he continued. Speaking specifically about the case of Dustin Hoffman, who has been accused of inappropriate behaviour in the ‘70s, Neeson said, “The Dustin Hoffman thing, I’m on the fence about that.”
“Because when you’re doing a play and you’re with your family, other actors, technicians, you do silly things. You do silly things and it becomes kind of superstitious; if you don’t do it every night you think it’s going to jinx the show. I think Dustin Hoffman was… I’m not saying I’ve done similar things like what he did. Apparently, he touched another girl’s breast and stuff. But it’s childhood stuff what he was doing,” he continued.
{{/usCountry}}“Because when you’re doing a play and you’re with your family, other actors, technicians, you do silly things. You do silly things and it becomes kind of superstitious; if you don’t do it every night you think it’s going to jinx the show. I think Dustin Hoffman was… I’m not saying I’ve done similar things like what he did. Apparently, he touched another girl’s breast and stuff. But it’s childhood stuff what he was doing,” he continued.
{{/usCountry}}When the actor was cut off by host Ryan Tubridy, who asked him if he thought that a larger movement was happening because of these voices coming forward, Neeson agreed, but also said that it should go beyond Hollywood. “There is a movement happening. It’s healthy and it’s across every industry. The focus seems to be on Hollywood at the minute. But it’s across every industry. I’m a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador, and a very proud one. And I get sent facts and figures and stuff. And if you read the stuff I’ve read about how female labourers are being treated in farms, ranches, and all the rest of it, it’s chilling,” he said.
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