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Ben Affleck says he wants to be “part of the solution” when it comes to sexual harassment in Hollywood.
The Oscar winner has stated he’ll no longer profit from any of the films he made with Miramax – Harvey Weinstein’s former company – saying he’ll donate the royalties from Good Will Hunting, Gone Baby Gone and others to charity, following in the footsteps of director Kevin Smith.
“It’s funny that you mention that because once Kevin suggested that I decided to do the same thing,” he said during an interview to promote Justice League.
“So any further residuals I get from a Miramax or a Weinstein movie will go either to FIND or to RAINN – one is Film Independent, the other is a women’s organisation.
“I just didn’t want to cash any more cheques from the guy.”
Affleck has long known about Weinstein’s behaviour towards women; he dated Gwyneth Paltrow after she was sexually harassed by the disgraced director.
In a separate interview with AP Affleck also said he’s “looking at my own behavior and addressing that and making sure I’m part of the solution”, after several women accused him of inappropriate conduct over the years.
He apologised to TV host Hilarie Burton after a Twitter user reminded the world that he grabbed Burton’s breast on TV show TRL Live in the nineties.
Makeup artist Annamarie Tendler also accused him on Twitter, saying Affleck “grabbed [her] ass” at a 2014 Golden Globes party. A TV writer corroborated her account, saying Affleck did that to several women at the party.
In the interview with AP, Affleck said “more women need to be pushed to power” and sexual harassment needs to be “a men’s issue” to solve the insidious problem.
