Source: Cass Bird / ELLE
As Issa Rae graces one of the covers for Elle’s Women In Hollywood issue, she kept it real.
One of the many topics approached included the #MeToo movement spreading throughout the entertainment industry. What first started as a hashtag a few years ago, the social movement against sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and rape culture has led to a reckoning that Rae says hasn’t amounted to much.
“It feels like we’re regressing, depressingly so. There are just too many enablers for there to be real change. People have to be held accountable. There have to be legitimate consequences. Hollywood is very bad about consequences. It’s literally the worst industry when it comes to punishing people for misdeeds and actions because money will always reign supreme. That’s something that, even by working in this industry, we’re enabling. So it’s hard. What I have realized is that I can control my own environment and who I work with. I can hold people accountable within my world and my bubble. I don’t have to work for everybody. All money isn’t good money. All people aren’t good people,” she said.
Despite all the traction not amounting to much change, Rae’s got a few ideas on how to expedite the process, and she named dropped Ezra Miller in the process.
“I think it’s extremely important to, like the mantra says, ‘Listen to women.’ I’m gonna be real, the stuff that’s happening with Ezra Miller is, to me, a microcosm of Hollywood,” she continued. “There’s this person who’s a repeat offender, who’s been behaving atrociously, and as opposed to shutting them down and shutting the production down, there’s an effort to save the movie and them. That is a clear example of the lengths that Hollywood will go to to save itself and to protect offenders. So, don’t do that, and women may be able to thrive.”
Miller is an American actor battling a string of legal issues this year, including video evidence of them choking a woman at a bar in April and claims of grooming a minor. The woman in question is 18-year-old North Dakota activist Tokata Iron Eyes, who allegedly lives with Miller and has known him since she was 12. Eyes has alleged there’s been no wrongdoing.
Rae concludes the topic by clarifying that she doesn’t support people jumping to conclusions and would rather investigations to discover if there was any wrongdoing.
