We’d like to apologize in advance for utterly blowing your mind here, but Sean Penn recently suggested in an interview with Today that he’s not a big fan of the #MeToo movement, saying that it’s “too black and white” and that “the spirit” of it is “to divide men and women.” This is the same Sean Penn who was famously accused of being violently abusive toward Madonna when the two were married, so it makes sense that he might not be overly fond of a trend that involves making a conscious effort to trust and support the women and men making accusations of abuse.
Anyway, Penn’s The First co-star Natascha McElhone brought up #MeToo first, saying it had some influence on her character, but Penn bristled at that idea. “I’d like to think that none of it was influenced by what they call the movement of #MeToo,” he said, adding that #MeToo is “largely shouldered by a kind of receptacle of the salacious.” When McElhone asked what he meant by that, he explained that #MeToo is “salacious” because it’s “really a series of many individual accusers, victims, accusations, some of which are unfounded.”
Of course, let’s not gloss over the fact that a woman said that her performance was at least somewhat inspired by #MeToo, and a man’s response was, essentially, “You’re wrong, because I personally don’t totally agree with the so-called movement.” That would be a bad look for anyone, but it’s a worse look for a guy like Sean Penn.