George Clooney Slams Harvey Weinstein in Wake of ‘Indefensible’ Sexual Misconduct Allegations

George Clooney has broken his silence about Harvey Weinstein, the film producer who gave him his first big break in the 1996 film From Dusk till Dawn.

Amid Weinstein’s sexual harassment scandal, the actor, 56, spoke out against the movie mogul. “It’s indefensible. That’s the only word you can start with. Harvey’s admitted to it, and it’s indefensible,” Clooney told The Daily Beast about his reaction to the news.

Though he’s heard “rumors” about Weinstein since the 1990s, the Suburbicon director admitted that he only heard that “certain actresses had slept with Harvey to get a role” and dismissed them as something said to diminish the actresses’ talent.

“I’ve known Harvey for twenty years. … But I can tell you that I’ve never seen any of this behavior — ever,” Clooney said, adding that he was not aware of how Weinstein reportedly reached settlements with the women he sexually harassed, as first revealed in The New York Times exposé, which also disclosed that eight women, including actress Ashley Judd, came forward to accuse the film mogul of sexual misconduct.

RELATED GALLERY: The Harvey Weinstein Scandal: All of the Hollywood Figures Who Have Spoken Out Against Movie Mogul

“I didn’t hear anything about that and I don’t know anyone that did. That’s a whole other level and there’s no way you can reconcile that. There’s nothing to say except that it’s indefensible,” Clooney explained.

However, the father of two assured that had he known prior to the revealing NYT story, he would’ve “confront[ed]” the issue head-on. 

Clooney shared how he felt “very bad” for all the victims, specifically pointing out Lauren Sivan, though not by name.

“I mean, cornering a young anchorwoman in the kitchen and jerking off into a potted plant? That’s not just some rumor about Harvey hitting on a woman; it’s disturbing on a whole lot of levels, because there had to be a lot of people involved in covering that up,” he said.

WATCH: Harvey Weinstein Forced Out of Own Company After Sexual Harassment Allegations

 

Describing Roger Ailes and Bill Cosby‘s sexual assault scandals as “watershed moments,” Clooney also called out Weinstein for being guilty of “taking advantage of people not in power” and being an “establishment figure up to some very shady stuff.”

“This is a big problem in our society,” he said. “This is a moral issue. We’re all going to have to be more diligent about it and look for any warning signs. Before, people weren’t paying enough attention to it. Now we have to. This is the moment to start scaring people like this into not acting this way anymore.”

But while he questioned the nature of Hollywood’s complicity, the actor also said he believed it was not a case of people looking the other way.

“I don’t think that people were looking the other way; I think that people weren’t looking, because in some ways, a lecherous guy with money picking up younger girls is unfortunately not a news story in our society.,” the actor said.

Amid the controversy, Clooney somehow found a silver lining.

“Maybe that’s what good will come out of this: that not just in Hollywood, although Hollywood is now the focus, but in all of these cases the victims will feel that they will be listened to, and that they don’t need to be afraid,” the star shared.

“Something good has to come out of this … victims have to feel safer to come out and tell their stories without the fear of losing their jobs, and they also need to be believed, which is a very important element of this,” the two-time Oscar winner emphasized.

Clooney wasn’t the first to speak out against Weinstein. In addition to several of Hollywood’s leading ladies, male celebrities such as Christian Slater, James Gunn and Kevin Smith have lent their voices in support of those accusing Weinstein of alleged misconduct.

Weinstein’s alleged decades of sexual misconduct came to light on Thursday after eight women, including actress Ashley Judd, came forward to accuse the film mogul of sexual misconduct in an article by the New York Times. Following the allegations, the Oscar-winning film producer was removed from his powerhouse film studio The Weinstein Company. 

“I appreciate the way I’ve behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it. Though I’m trying to do better, I know I have a long way to go,” Weinstein said, adding that he was working with therapists and planned to take time off to “deal with this issue head-on.”

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California Fires Kill at Least 10 and Destroy 1500 Buildings

“This is really serious. It’s moving fast. The heat, the lack of humidity and the winds are all driving a very dangerous situation and making it worse,” the governor said at a morning news conference. “It’s not under control by any means. But we’re on it in the best way we know how.”

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Hospitals in Napa and Sonoma Counties reported scores of patients with fire-related ailments. St. Joseph Health said it had treated about 170 people at three of its hospitals in the region — most of them for smoke inhalation, but some for burns. Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and Petaluma Valley Hospital postponed all elective procedures to free up resources for emergency care.

The fires began at about 10 p.m. Sunday and were fanned by wind gusts of more than 50 miles an hour, Ms. Upton said. The causes remained under investigation on Monday afternoon.

The worst fires in Northern California tend to hit in October, when dry conditions prime them to spread fast and far as heavy winds, known as north winds or diablo winds, buffet the region.

Ms. Upton said that conditions were critically dry, given the lack of moisture in the air and the buildup of grass, brush and trees.

“Combined, that’s a recipe for disaster,” she said.

Smoke billowed into the Bay Area, but the Marin County Fire Department reported that there were no separate fires there.

aerial footage of the #NapaFire pic.twitter.com/haqpyBlRxz

—
Adam Housley (@adamhousley)
Oct. 9, 2017

Reports suggested that residents had been caught unaware, many of them fleeing in cars and on foot as firefighters rushed to contain the outbreak. A number of roadways, including highways, were blocked by fire.

Parts of Santa Rosa were evacuated, according to the city manager, who said the Kaiser Permanente and Sutter hospitals were being cleared out. Marc Brown, a spokesman for Kaiser Permanente, said about 130 patients had been evacuated from the Santa Rosa medical center because of the fires.

But St. Joseph Health, another hospital system in the area, said in a statement Monday evening that its facilities were still open.

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Flying cinders carried the fire across roads and ignited small patches through neighborhoods: A pile of wood chips in the Home Depot parking lot caught fire. Traffic lights at multiple intersections were not functioning, and columns of black smoke could be seen in the evergreen forests on the northern outskirts of the city.

The fires raged through the hills that are home to some of the country’s most prized vineyards. The main north-south highway that connects San Francisco to the northernmost parts of California was closed Monday as fire engulfed both sides of the freeway. Santa Rosa is a hub for tours into wine country, and at least two large hotels that cater to the wine tourism trade were destroyed by the fires.

North of Santa Rosa’s downtown, residents of the Overlook, a hilltop apartment complex, used fire extinguishers to put out flames engulfing cypress trees planted along a building. Minutes later, the flames returned. At least three engines and ladder trucks arrived but could not stop flames on one of the buildings from spreading to the roof.

“It looks like they’re giving up on that one,” said Derek Smith, a Santa Rosa resident watching the blaze whose house was several blocks away.

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Belia Ramos, the chairwoman of the Napa County board of supervisors, said the county was dealing with three main fires. One has threatened more than 10,000 acres in northern Napa County, another has endangered 8,000 to 12,000 acres, and a third has affected about 2,000 acres, she said.

California was hit by fires throughout the summer. Late last month, several blazes led to the evacuation of about 1,000 people in Southern California. And on Monday, a brush fire in Anaheim burned at least seven homes.

“I’ve been with the department for 31 years, and some years are notorious,” Ms. Upton said, adding, “I’m afraid that 2017 is going to be added to that list now.”

Even into the early afternoon — many hours after the homes were destroyed in the Journey’s End retirement community in Santa Rosa — flames shot from a large propane tank with a roar that resembled an aircraft engine.

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Richard Snyder and Robert Sparks, both residents of the retirement community, said their neighboring trailers had been incinerated. They lost televisions, books, laptops — and copies of the insurance policies they had taken out.

“This is all I have,” Mr. Snyder said, pointing to his jeans and turquoise T-shirt. “And one pair of glasses.”

The fire was so intense, it burned through the metal and glass trailers and safes that had been advertised as fireproof.

“It was locked,” Dana Walter, Mr. Sparks’s daughter, said of the safe. “Passports, ID cards, everything gone.”

Ofelia Razo, one of about a dozen residents whose houses were spared, fled with her purse in a pre-dawn evacuation with dozens of other residents. Her husband, Milton, took only his guitar.

When they returned about 10 hours later, Ms. Razo saw the smoking rubble in the distance and broke down.

But as she came closer, she saw that the fire had stopped at her wooden lattice fence. Her powder blue trailer was, bizarrely, untouched. Even the plastic flowers in a ceramic pumpkin vase on the porch were intact. Her red rose bushes were only lightly singed.

“It’s a miracle!” she said. “Gracias, Señor!”

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