Cate Blanchett reveals Harvey Weinstein harassed her: 'He primarily preyed on the vulnerable'

Cate Blanchett, who is the head of the jury this year at Cannes Film Festival, has been to the French Riviera multiple times. However, this time, she takes on a more significant role by becoming only the 12th woman to fill the seat. In an interview with Variety, the actress reflected on the previous year and its highlights — the Harvey Weinstein scandal and eventual reckoning, Times Up movement and pay parity. The Oscar-winning actress in a shocking revelation hinted at being harassed by Weinstein, who is accused of sexually harassing and assaulting as many as 80 women. When asked about what happened between her and the disgraced producer, she doesn’t go into the details, but said, “I think he really primarily preyed, like most predators, on the vulnerable. I mean I got a bad feeling from him. … He would often say to me, “We’re not friends.” [caption id=“attachment_4403851” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Cate Blanchett. Facebook[/caption] She hopes Weinstein goes to jail and maintains that it’s important for people to get tried through the judicial system. No conversation about sexual misconduct in Hollywood is complete without bringing in Woody Allen, a Hollywood favourite, who has also been accused of sexaully abusing his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow. Blanchett, who has worked with the acclaimed filmmaker, says that if the case has not been tried properly, it should be reopened. She doesn’t clearly state whether she’s open to working with him again but does maintain that if the case were to go to court again, she’d support it fully. Although Blanchett says she has no interest in defending a criminal, she does point out how the noise sometimes distracts us from the root cause.“Don’t hunt around for someone who put their hand on someone’s knee. What social media does is flatline our ability to discern between things that are offensive and annoying and criminally reprehensible,” she states. Speaking about the glaring pay-gap issue that has been creating ripples in the industry, Blanchett says she too has found herself in situations where she didn’t think she was receiving what she truly deserved. She claims she recently passed on a project because though her presence in the film was being advertised fully, she wasn’t receiving the same amount as her male counterpart. Blanchett states that powerful women are also pulled down if they try to take money matters in their hand. She concludes by saying that although seeing men and women take on leadership roles in equal number by 2020 seems like a long shot, there is change in the air because the “windows are open”.