(ANTIMEDIA)Β β Almost two months after sexual harassment allegations began rocking Hollywood, beloved actor Tom Hanks has broken his silence about the ongoing crisis. Hanks spoke about Hollywoodβs institutional problem with sexual exploitation during a roundtableΒ discussionΒ with theΒ Hollywood ReporterΒ that also included James Franco,Β John Boyega, Gary Oldman, Sam Rockwell and Willem Dafoe. It will air in full at the end of January.
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Hanks, who has served an executive producer on many projects, spoke first on the many positive experiences that unfold in the film industry.
βThereβs a lot of reasons people do this for a living,β he said. βMaking a movie is a life experience that can create an awful lot of joy. You can meet the person you fall in love with, you can laugh your heads off, you can make the best friend youβve ever had, you can work with one of your heroes. Thatβs the good stuff that can happen on a movie.β
He went on to acknowledge the darker side of Hollywood.
βThe bad stuff can happen on a movie as well,β he said. βThereβs some people that go into this business because they got off on having power.β
Recounting a particular incident without sharing specifics, he stressed the need to hold potential predators accountable.
βWe produced a project in which someone said, βThereβs an element of harassment thatβs going on here,ββ he said. βAnd as soon as we heard, youβve got to jump right in. You talk to everyone, the guilds and you find out what happened.β
Hanks also addressed the industryβs atmosphere and culture, where would-be harassers feel exempt from societyβs normal ethical standards.
βThere can be that type of predatory aspect on a set because you think, βWell, weβre in the circus and weβre on the road, so therefore, do the rules really apply? They donβt really apply,ββ he said.
βThereβs the other aspect of it is that, βCome try to get this job from me. You want me to give you a job? Come on. Come. Come prove to me that you want this job.β Thatβs a sin, and thatβs against the law and that is a degree of harassment and predatory behavior that goes against an assumed code of ethics.β
Speaking about that code of ethics, Hanks suggested that beyond an βassumedβ code of ethics, these standards should also be explicit.
βI think eventually, I think everybody who has an office or a production office above the coffee maker or the copy machine is going to have a code of ethics in behavior: If you donβt follow these, you will not work here. And thatβs not necessarily going to be a bad thing.β
He also expressed hope for change:
βSomebody said, I donβt know who it was, said, βIs it too late to change things?β No, itβs never too late to change things. Itβs never too late to learn new behaviors. And thatβs the responsibility of anybody who wants to obey a code of professional ethics.β