Cate Blanchett thinks Hollywood moved on from #MeToo a little too quickly. The Oscar-winning actress reflected on the movement’s sudden slowdown during a conversation at the Cannes Film Festival, where she openly discussed sexism, power imbalances, and the lingering culture women still face on film sets.
The comments came during a Cannes talk moderated by journalist Didier Allouch on Sunday.
At Cannes Film Festival, Cate chats on women’s struggles in film; “if you don’t identify a problem, you can’t solve the problem”
According to Variety, Blanchett said the #MeToo movement “got killed very quickly” despite exposing what she described as a deep-rooted culture of abuse across multiple industries. “What it revealed is a systemic layer of abuse,” Blanchett explained. “And if you don’t identify a problem, you can’t solve the problem.”
The actress questioned why conversations surrounding harassment and abuse seemed to lose momentum even after so many women publicly shared their experiences beginning in 2017.
“There are a lot of people with platforms who are able to speak up with relative safety,” Blanchett said before asking why the broader conversation eventually became quieter. The two-time Oscar winner also spoke about the gender imbalance she still notices while working on movie sets today.
Apparently, Blanchett has developed a habit of mentally counting how many women are present during productions. “There’s 10 women, and there’s 75 men every morning,” she said while discussing the atmosphere behind the scenes.
Blanchett clarified that her criticism is not aimed at men themselves but rather at how repetitive and limiting homogeneous work environments can become.
“I love men,” she added. “But the jokes become the same.”
The actress has spoken publicly about gender inequality in Hollywood for years. Back in 2018, she joined 81 other women at Cannes in a symbolic protest highlighting the lack of female directors represented throughout the festival’s history.
At the time, Blanchett pointed out that only 82 women had competed at Cannes compared to more than 1,500 male directors. During this year’s conversation, the actress suggested progress has happened in some areas, but not nearly fast enough.
Originally reported by Vanshika Vasundhare Singh for Mandatory
