As he’s made painfully clear as of late, like most of his Hollywood pals, Alec Baldwin openly embraces much of the Left’s worldview, particularly regarding the president the comedic actor has spent most of the last year ridiculing. But Baldwin’s not toeing the leftist line on one particular issue: #MeToo, a movement to which he refuses to kowtow, even in the face of increased public pressure.
In an entertaining interview with The Hollywood Reporter this week, Baldwin discussed the #MeToo movement, including its impact on his friend Woody Allen, who has been accused of molesting his adopted daughter, who Baldwin has consistently supported. The actor also dropped some strong comments about one of the movement’s most vocal leaders, original Harvey Weinstein-accuser Rose McGowan.
In the interview, conducted to promote Baldwin’s new show on ABC, “Sundays With Alec Baldwin,” Baldwin was asked about ABC’s “concern level” with Baldwin talking about #MeToo with Jerry Seinfeld in light of Baldwin landing in “hot water” over his defense of Allen. In his response, Baldwin doubled down on his support of the embattled director and defended himself in relation to another #MeToo-accused director, James Toback.
Baldwin suggested that while the first phases of the feminist-driven movement were healthy and good, after it ran out of legitimate “perpetrators,” it began to unfairly target those associated with the perps, like himself.
“When the community at large runs out of perpetrators, they start to turn on the supporters of the perpetrators because they need more fuel for the fire,” said Baldwin. “The next thing they throw on the fire are the friends of these people who aren’t stepping out and renouncing them. I have suffered from some of that: Woody and [James] Toback.”
“I’m eager to see the legal consequences of this,” he continued. “I think innuendo and accusations are a first step, but you’ve got a guy like [Harvey] Weinstein — he’s not even low-hanging fruit, he’s right in the dirt to pick up — and we need to see a conviction.”
Later, Baldwin returned to his defense of his friends. “[M]y inclination to want to defend my friends — who either A) I thought were innocent, which is Woody or B) I had no knowledge of what they did and I still have no knowledge of what they did, which is Toback — is a normal inclination,” he said. “It’s a normal inclination to want to rally by your friends up until the point that they are convicted of something. If they’re convicted of a crime — well, then, you’re sad, and that’s tragic, but they’ve got to go through that process. In the meantime, I hope that we see some manifestation of this beyond just social media.”
Asked if he’d invite Allen on as a guest for his new show, Baldwin said that’s a no-go and then worked in a dig at #MeToo movement leader Rose McGowan.
“I doubt there’s any amount of money you could pay Woody to come on and talk about this stuff,” he said. “He has already said everything he has to say. I tried to invite [Weinstein accuser] Annabella Sciorra to do my podcast. She turned me down. I’d like to invite somebody who’s not a litigant. Rose McGowan? I would like to talk to her. I doubt she’d want to talk to me. She has taken a long, steady piss on me in the past about this stuff, which is fine. I understand that this is what she feels she has to do. And she has no shortage of access to the media. She can sit down in front of a microphone anytime she wants to.”
In his remarks, Baldwin stressed that he wants to see “real consequences” for the real perpetrators, claiming he’d be “crowdfunding” for legal fees to “harangue the L.A. and the New York D.A.’s office 24/7 to bring charges” against the perps. “Right now, no one has been prosecuted. Nobody,” he said. “Is that going to change, or are we going to stay in the realm where it’s just accusations and condemnations being played out in the press?”
In response to announcements that a “sneak peak” of Baldwin’s new show would air after the Oscars Sunday, President Trump offered some thoughts on Baldwin’s “mediocre dying” career and cited a quote from Baldwin’s THR interview in which he described playing Trump as an “agony.”