Sean Penn is "suspicious" of the #MeToo movement as he believes it has "divided men and women".
Sean Penn
The 58-year-old actor has slammed the rise of the movement that was created in an effort to stop sexual harassment, as he believes the campaign has become "salacious", and rather than bring people together to fight for a cause, he thinks it's only served to separate men and women further.
Speaking during an appearance on 'Today' on Monday (17.09.18), Sean said: "This is a movement that was largely shouldered by a kind of receptacle of the salacious.
"We don't know what's a fact in many of the cases. Salacious is as soon as you call something a movement that is really a series of many individual accusers, victims, accusations, some of which are unfounded. The spirit of much of what has been the #MeToo movement is to divide men and women.
"I'm very suspicious of a movement that gets glommed onto in great stridency and rage and without nuance. And even when people try to discuss it in a nuanced way, the nuance is attacked."
The 'Mystic River' actor also hit out at the movement for being "too black and white", and added: "In most things that are very important, it's really good to just slow down."
Sean appeared on 'Today' alongside his 'The First' costar Natascha McElhone, and was asked if he believes the show - which follows astonauts in the race to become the first humans to visit Mars - was influenced by #MeToo because of the inclusion of several female astronauts and a female American president.
He said: "I'd like to think that none of it was influenced by what they call the movement of #MeToo. I think it's influenced by the things that are developing in terms of the empowerment of women who've been acknowledging each other and being acknowledged by men."
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