Idris Elba is a badass man who has shown his support for the #MeToo Movement.
During an interview with The Times, the actor was asked how difficult the movement was for him as a man in Hollywood.
“It’s only difficult if you’re a man with something to hide,” Elba stated.
Across Twitter, both fans and fellow actors and directors voiced their approval of Elba’s statement.
Director Ava DuVernay tweeted, “Preach, brother. Preach,” while former Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett called men to action by tweeting, “Listen up, fellas.”
This isn’t the first time the actor has voiced his support for women during the #MeToo Movement, either.
While promoting his film Molly’s Game in 2017, Elba stated: “Of course, this is a film that was made a year ago, and probably prepped two or three years ago, but to come out when its coming out now is actually quite amazing when we’re seeing women stand up and have a liberation movement of speaking up against some of their atrocities that [have] happened.”
Though the #MeToo movement began in Hollywood well over a year ago, progress in terms of equality and justice for women in the industry has not been nearly as great as originally expected. Within the past 20 years of film, there has been little to no change in terms of representation of women in the industry.
Elba also commented that it was “refreshing” to work with a woman lead on Molly’s Game, referring to Jessica Chastain.
“It’s nice to have a character that is a strong, interesting character and also be a woman,” Elba said. “It’s definitely refreshing to have a lead character as a female lead and really complex and great.”
Additionally, in a 2016 speech to the UK’s parliament, Elba stressed the need for more representation of women in the film industry, both in acting roles and behind the scenes.
“What all this taught me, is too often people get locked inside boxes. And it’s not a great place to be. Ask women, they’ll say the same thing,” Elba stated.
“But as Viola Davis said last year when she became the first-ever Black woman to win an Emmy for drama, ‘You can’t win an Emmy for a role that’s never been written.’ That’s why we need more imagination from our directors, our producers, our casting directors, our writers – especially our writers. So I’m just saying we need to be more aware,” he concluded.
Many powerful men have been treating the #MeToo movement as a war on men instead of a time for women to stand up to the mistreatment they have faced. Men like Idris Elba have done an excellent job of reminding the world of something important: #MeToo is not an attack on innocent men, in fact it is not a man’s problem at all.
If more well-known men were vocal of their support for #MeToo, more progress would be made in understanding and embracing the movement.
Featured Image by Athena LeTrelle on Flickr
Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0)
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