Joining the ranks of celebrities reacting the victims of and allegations against Harvey Weinstein is Blake Lively.
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Lively, noting she has never experienced or been made aware of the recently surfaced cases of Weinstein harassing, groping, and worse with women in Hollywood, says it “was never [her] experience with Harvey in any way whatsoever,” while speaking to THR. It is a story completely opposite to that of Suicide Squad star Cara Delevingne and many others.
“I think that if people heard these stories … I do believe in humanity enough to think that this wouldn’t have just continued,” Lively said. “I never heard any stories like this — I never heard anything specific — but it’s devastating to hear.”
While Lively has never experienced these horrible events herself, she insists the victims must be both heard and believed.
“The number one thing that can happen is that people who share their stories, people have to listen to them and trust them, and people have to take it seriously,” Lively said. “As important as it is to remain furious about this, it’s important to also say that this exists everywhere so remember to look everywhere. This isn’t a single incident. This cannot happen, this should not happen, and it happens in every single industry.”
As the actress goes on, she points out how common moments like these are for women in Hollywood and around the world, making it hard to process when lines are crossed.
“It happens to women all over the place, all the time, to the point where women don’t even think that this is a real assault,” Lively said. “I’ve had plenty of things happen to me whether it be trying on a dress for prom at some clothing store, to a director being inappropriate, to a guy walking down the street where you don’t think, ‘Oh well, that wasn’t actually sexual assault — this guy just, like, grabbed my butt.’”
“It’s important that women are furious right now,” Lively continued. “It’s important that there is an uprising. It’s important that we don’t stand for this and that we don’t focus on one or two or three or four stories, it’s important that we focus on humanity in general and say, ‘This is unacceptable.’”
Since the avalanche of allegations, Weinstein has released a statement through his spokesperson Sallie Hofmeister:
“Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein. Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances. He will not be available for further comments, as he is taking the time to focus on his family, on getting counseling and rebuilding his life.”
