3 days ago
Inbetweeners star warns men in film industry have a 'new method' of targeting women eight years on from #MeToo
Actress Jessica Knappett has warned that predators in the TV and film industry are now employing new methods to target women - nearly a decade on from the #MeToo movement.
The British actress and comedian, known for her breakout role in The Inbetweeners Movie, and later TV star roles in shows Drifters and Avoidance, opened up about her concerns for women in a new podcast.
Appearing as a guest on Gabby Logan 's podcast The Mid Point, the 40-year-old said that rather than sidelining women in TV and film, where many have reported sexual harassment and assault at the hands of male authority figures during the #MeToo, predators may now be turning down new avenues to target women.
Jessica, originally from Bingley in Yorkshire, said women in podcasting could be most at risk.
'I really worry about podcasting now – because a man can say: 'come and record my podcast with me,' and you can turn up and it can just be you and him,' said the actress.
Recalling a recent occasion arriving at someone's house to record a podcast, Jessica said she became suddenly aware of the potential risks of the situation.
'That's happened to me, not in a violent way, but... I was recording someone's podcast the other day, he was recording it in his flat, just me and him, and I thought - if you're a predator, this isn't a safe space for women – it's the wild west.'
It comes nearly 10 years on from when the Me Too movement first went mainstream in 2017 after singer and actress, Alyssa Milano, blew the whistle on harassment and sexual assault in Hollywood.
The British actress and comedian, known for her breakout role in The Inbetweeners Movie, and later TV star roles in shows Drifters and Avoidance, opened up about her concerns for women in a new podcast. Pictured left in The Inbetweeners Movie in 2011
Years on from the watershed moment, figures in the TV and film industry have been forced to take collective action to improve the situation - including implementing formal measures to hold perpetrators accountable.
Speaking on the podcast, Jessica claimed the TV and film industry still isn't safe for women.
She said: 'I still in all honesty don't think it's safe - in the TV and film industry - the boundaries are so blurred between what's work and not.
'If a producer's asking you to come and meet them for a drink because he likes your script then you're gonna go probably, now I know that that's not normal, and the good men that I work with work within working hours.'
'A lot of the good ones (men) feel uncomfortable about it, there has been a shift and they don't wanna make you uncomfortable and they're scared, they don't wanna be accused of anything.'
Jessica made her mark on The Inbetweeners franchise in 2011, when she appeared in the first film playing Lisa, the love interest of the series's lovable fool, Neil Sutherland, played by Blake Harrison.
Married to Emmy nominated documentary writer Dane Crane, Jessica is also a mother-of-two and lives in Ilkley in Yorkshire.
She's not the first to have called out those in the industry for failing to take action following the moment the issue was first raised in Hollywood.
Earlier this year, Cate Blanchett echoed sentiments voiced by Jessica, saying that the industry still had vast amounts of work to do to address the ongoing epidemic of sexual harassment.
Cate insisted that despite years of widespread conversations sparked by the Me Too movement, there has not been enough progress.
'Everyone talks about the #MeToo movement as if it's well and truly over, and I think well, it didn't really ever take root, to be honest,' she told NET-A-PORTER'S digital title PORTER.
'People were seeking to dismantle and discredit those voices that were only just beginning to come out from under the floorboards into the light. I find it quite distressing the way that it hasn't taken root.'
In a 2018 interview with Variety the actress was asked if she had every been sexually harassed by Weinstein and she said 'Yes'.
'I think he really primarily preyed, like most predators, on the vulnerable. I mean I got a bad feeling from him. … He would often say to me, 'We're not friends,'' the actress said.
When asked what he meant by that, she said only: 'Well, I wouldn't do what he was asking me to do.'
Cate and Weinstein have a long working history, going as far back as 2000's Oscar-nominated film, The Talented Mr Ripley.
Last week, former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of sexual assault.
After a retrial on rape and sexual assault charges before a New York Supreme Criminal Court jury in Manhattan, which lasted over a month, he was convicted on 4 June.
The disgraced Hollywood producer was found guilty of sexually assaulting his former assistant but not guilty of forcing oral sex on a teenage model.
Weinstein has long denied he did anything illegal and disputes the sexual harassment claims of dozens of women included in the report.
Aged 73, he is currently imprisoned in a special unit of a New York City hospital battling leukemia, where he faced an additional 10 years behind bars.
