PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Actress Mira Sorvino said that she hopes the Me Too movement keeps its focus on sexual misconduct and doesn’t turn into a general women’s rights movement.
Sorvino met with television critics Thursday about her participation in an AT&T Audience Network drama, “Condor,” but talk quickly turned to sexual misconduct involving Hollywood figures. Sorvino is one of mogul Harvey Weinstein’s accusers, having alleged her career suffered for spurning his 1995 advances.
A day earlier, HuffPost published Sorvino’s public apology to Woody Allen’s daughter Dylan Farrow. Sorvino said she was sorry for “turning a blind eye” to Farrow’s accusations against him and vowed never to work with Allen again. Sorvino starred in Allen’s “Mighty Aphrodite.”
Farrow has maintained her father sexually abused her when she was 7 years old, a charge the filmmaker has denied. Connecticut police investigated, but charges were never filed.
Sorvino said she accepted a media portrayal of the charges as an outgrowth of a bitter custody battle between Allen and actress Mia Farrow, and didn’t investigate further at the time. Sorvino said she never had a problem with Allen’s behavior when she worked with him. But the fact that she wished Farrow’s charges weren’t true doesn’t excuse overlooking them at the time, she said.
There was no immediate comment from Allen about Sorvino’s letter.
Sorvino said she’s thought long and hard about what she’s wanted to say about the issue and that’s why she’s turned largely to written commentaries in recent months.
She said she’s excited that the discussion is taking place and that it has important implications for young girls today.
“It’s a wonderful and awakening time for all of us as moral human beings to say that nobody should have to be abused in the workplace,” she said.
But she said it was important to keep the Me Too movement focused on sexual misconduct, instead of seeing it diluted with discussion of equal pay and opportunity.