Helen Mirren believes Hollywood’s sexual harassment scandal has been brewing for a number of years.
The veteran actress has spoken openly about her support for campaigns encouraging women within the film industry to share their experiences of abuse. Though Helen has stated she’s never been a victim of abuse since breaking into Hollywood, she claims that the Time’s Up and #MeToo movements result from years of the growing discontent shared amongst female film stars.
“I think of it more of a sort of volcanic explosion than a tipping point,” she said in an interview on U.K. television show Lorraine. “It’s like this volcano that’s been bursting and bursting and little cracks of smoke and fire have been coming out from time to time, finally the magma is appearing and it’s flowing down the sides of the hill. Certainly about time, definitely.”
The scandal started to gain momentum after producer Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexual misconduct by a huge number of actresses, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Lawrence and most recently Uma Thurman, who accused Weinstein of assaulting her in a London hotel room 25 years ago. Although Helen feels that much progress has been made, she insists it’s not yet enough and “(doesn’t) understand why it’s taken so long to get here.” However, the Oscar-winner highlights one possible reason as the lack of self-confidence amongst her female peers in the film world.
“Self-confidence is such a difficult thing to find,” she mused, before going on to admit she suffers from nerves before attending red carpet events.
“It’s a feeling of a lack of self-worth maybe and I think women in particular maybe suffer from this.”
However, the Red actress concluded by sharing what she believes to be the best way to gain confidence.
“”Fake it! Fake it and just continue faking it until weirdly it can become true. Faking it is very important,” she said.