Sarah Silverman on Louis CK: “Can you love someone who did bad things?”
Sarah Silverman has addressed the (admittedly true) allegations against Louis CK, asking, “Can you love someone who did bad things?” Silverman, who has been good friends with CK for over 25 years, addressed the controversy on her Hulu show, I Love You, America.
The New York Times reports that Silverman opened the monologue by saying the recent wave of calling out sexual assault “has been a long time coming,” comparing the process to “cutting out tumors” and saying that while it’s “messy and complicated,” it’s necessary. She said one inevitable consequence, though, is that “some of our heroes will be taken down, and we will discover bad things about people we like, or in some cases, people we love.”
Silverman then said she tried to sit the CK debate—if there is a debate—out, but realized that she’s said “if it’s mentionable, it’s manageable,” so decided “to address the elephant masturbating in the room.” She then went on to say CK’s actions meant that he “wielded his power with women” in ways that were troubling and predatory.
As the Times reports:
Ms. Silverman asked rhetorically: “I could couch this with heartwarming stories of our friendship and what a great dad he is, but that’s totally irrelevant, isn’t it? Yes, it is.”
“I love Louie,” she said, “but Louie did these things. Both of those statements are true. So, I just keep asking myself, can you love someone who did bad things? Can you still love them? I can mull that over later, certainly, because the only people that matter right now are the victims. They are victims, and they’re victims because of something he did.”
She concluded her statement by saying:
“I hope it’s okay if I am at once very angry for the women he wronged and the culture that enabled it. And also sad, because he’s my friend. But I believe with all my heart that this moment in time is essential. It’s vital that people are held accountable for their actions, no matter who they are. We need to be better. We will be better.”
It’s worth mentioning that Silverman didn’t address a recent tweet posted by her sister, Laura Silverman, who once dated CK. In that tweet, Silverman said that, after she and CK had broken up, he masturbated in front of her “about 20 times” while they were “on a cross-country trip before he was famous,” noting that while she didn’t find the jerking off to be criminal, she did think it was “compulsive, rude, and gross.”