Terry Gilliam is the director of films like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Brothers Grimm, The Fisher King and more. He is a cult-favorite kind of guy, due to his idiosyncratic films and his work with Monty Python. He’s also sort of a garbage human being in real life. A few of Gilliam’s films were produced by Harvey Weinstein, including The Brothers Grimm. That was the film where Lena Headey came out and said that Weinstein nearly assaulted her, and that Gilliam was a total a–hole. Gilliam is also the guy who had a lot of sh-t to say about Michelle Williams in the wake of Heath Ledger’s death. Well, Gilliam has some sh-t to say about Harvey Weinstein and how we should be a lot nicer to poor mansplainer Matt Damon.
Director Terry Gilliam is speaking out against the #MeToo movement, saying that in Hollywood, “mob rule takes over; the mob is out there, they are carrying their torches and they are going to burn down Frankenstein’s castle.”
In a an interview with AFP on Friday, the filmmaker, a member of the comedy group Monty Python, specifically went after Harvey Weinstein’s alleged victims, and said, “Harvey opened the door for a few people, a night with Harvey — that’s the price you pay. It is a world of victims. I think some people did very well out of meeting with Harvey and others didn’t. The ones who did, knew what they were doing. These are adults; we are talking about adults with a lot of ambition.”
Gilliam also claimed that some of the women didn’t actually suffer, but used Weinstein to further their careers, and that he knew women who walked out of meetings with the mogul before getting sexually abused. The “Brazil” and “12 Monkeys” director also defended Matt Damon, who received public backlash in January for suggesting there were levels of sexual harassment, saying that touching someone’s butt is different than rape.
“I feel sorry for someone like Matt Damon, who is a decent human being,” Gilliam said of those original statements. “He came out and said all men are not rapists, and he got beaten to death. Come on, this is crazy!”
Despite describing the #MeToo movement as “simplistic” and “silly,” he still said Weinstein was “a monster” and warned there were still other people in the industry behaving like him. “I don’t think Hollywood will change, power always takes advantage — it always does and always has,” Gilliam said.
A British citizen, the director also took jabs at Trump in the interview, pointing out the irony of the women’s movement as Trump, who has been accused by numerous women of sexual harassment, sits in the White House. “It makes me feel like I’ve gotten very old and I am living through a nightmare world at the moment,” Gilliam said in light of Brexit and Trump’s election.
Dear God. I’m not going to play point-counterpoint with a British MRA douchebag, but I’ll just make a few points here. One, Matt Damon wasn’t only saying “not all men are rapists.” Damon was out there, repeatedly claiming that women were overreacting to being abused, harassed and raped and that he alone could adjudicate which sexual predators got to keep their careers. Two, the idea/reality that Weinstein didn’t abuse EVERY woman in Hollywood is a terrible defense. No one said Weinstein abused and harassed every woman. We’re saying he abused, raped, harassed and/or assaulted dozens of women who have come forward to tell their stories. Their “simplistic” and “silly” personal stories of how their careers and lives were altered forever by this disgusting predator.
Also:
My hard won advice: never get into an elevator alone with terry gilliam
— Ellen Barkin (@EllenBarkin) March 17, 2018
Yeah, Terry Gilliam defends sexual predators because he is one.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
He also supports Polanski and wrote a whole piece calling Amber Heard a liar when she divorced Johnny Depp. He’s the worst.
As soon as I started reading this, I figured he was so defensive for reason. And then Ellen Barkin confirmed that.
My soul just puked.
“Damon was out there, repeatedly claiming that women were overreacting to being abused, harassed and raped and that he alone could adjudicate which sexual predators got to keep their careers.”
Damon is a jerk, but you are REALLY putting words in his mouth with this take.
No, Damon is a piece of…
YES! Finally someone agrees about this! Matt Damon never said anything quite to that effect!
I went back and read the quotes he gave in interviews and, yes, this is essentially what he said. Kaiser succinctly paraphrased what he said over several interviews where he used massive word-salads to try to minimize his disdain for women finally standing up for themselves. He even apologized for it and stated he should keep his mouth shut and let women take the lead in the conversation. So I respectfully disagree with you.
No one said that was a direct quote @Josie, but the end result is the same – he was patronizing and condescending, asking in an exasperated manner (paraphrasing as I’m not looking his idiocy up) said in a frat douche voice: ‘We know touching someone’s butt isn’t rape, right?! We know a kiss isn’t rape right?! Right?!’
So in many ways it was worse than Kaiser’s interpretation when you add in the condescension and patronization. He’s telling women they’re overreacting and making a big deal over nothing and even worse that they can’t discern workplace harrassment even though they’ve been living it forever, while he, great white male savior, can indeed sort them out.
Damon’s comments were focused on how we should be emotionally invested extending second chances to and protecting the careers and reputations of privileged men in the industry who didn’t reach Weinstein levels of abuse and harassment. The backlash was appropriate. It’s so dramatic for this guy to say he was ‘beaten to death’ just because Matt Damon got some valid criticism.
He is consistently disgusting.
Why are men?
i wish i could upvote.
ya’ll know ellen barkin has a culdron of simmering tea on half of hollywood….
I’d like to put that on a t-shirt.
First things first–Gilliam is a disgusting piece of crap. It’s not news, but he’s just taken it to gross new levels.
Secondly, from a purely ‘business’ standpoint–he and Weinstein are supposed to hate the living lilies out of each other.
Weinstein basically fired Gilliam from active production on Grimm (a terrible film, by the way), after he’d fired Nicola Pecorini, his cinematographer, and then halted production while he tried to shop the whole project around to anyone who would listen to see if he could get literally anyone else to take over the directing of the film.
Gilliam went off to do a film in Canada–with Jeff Bridges, if memory serves–and only came back after a whole weird deal was struck, and everyone was supposed to have ended up hating each other and the film. It was, excuse my language, a sh*itshow. So, what happened in the interim? Huh?
He’s basically been blacklisted, anyway. He blows through bucket loads of money with no good reason, treats crews and casts–or anyone who gets in his path–like dirt, and he can’t make a decent film to save himself, anymore. And Parnassus was only released because he wanted to capitalise on Heath Ledger’s death, by the way. He was the driving force behind the move to finish–no one else wanted it.
Rant over.
I don’t blame you for ranting. He is a washed up director that no one cares about anymore. I suppose he is out there talking to get noticed or to take one for the team.
He’s a disgusting man who needs to slither on back under his rock.
It’s all OVER for these men.
Honestly I’d rather men like this be honest so we know what snakes they are. I opened the newspaper yesterday and an actor infamous for being a giant perv and harasser was interviewed banging on about how important the #MeToo movement was and how much he supported it.
I loved the Fisher King back in the day. But dear God, this guy is unbearable. And he is so clueless he actualy is parading his misogyny and stupidity as wisdom. I guess at least he is not saying he wants to be part of the solution when he actualy has no intention of being?
This guy sounds like a real winner
I do like the part of the interview where he mentions that his wife told him not to talk about/comment on all this…
….
…Dude. Listen to your wife. She was trying to save you. Men…listen to women. FFS.
Yep. Listen to your wife. But men can’t resist being the man-splainers and the judges of women and society, in spite of the fact that most of this power-abuse behavior seems to come from … men? Why are men, indeed.
Just remember what he said about amber heard and Michelle willians , he was a misogynist piece of trash and still is one piece of trash.
So many man tears, so little time to care.
It is 2018 and this weekend a good friend of mine had to sit through an evening of mansplaining by her husband and a dude bro friend about the overreaction of women in general and the fact that basically, equality is here and we’re all hysterical. We’re not even mid-30s. It is 2018. I don’t think our mothers thought that their daughters would have to fight THIS level of crazy back in the day.
No, they didn’t. It is a revelation to see the maneuvers these men try. They just need to shut up and listen. Ask questions. Be open to being corrected and wrong. I understand not fully understanding but what I don’t get is the persistence.
I thought he was very ill with dementia? His son had to collect an award for him a couple years ago. Am i mixing up my Terrys?
You’re thinking of the other Monty Python Terry, Terry Jones.
Hoo boy.
He just doesn’t understand, does he? That the ‘ambitious adult’ women who ‘willingly’ had sex with Weinstein are also victims – the fact they ‘chose’ to pay the price of success, doesn’t mean the said price is normal or legitimate. The whole culture is sick to the core. Weinstein is, thankfully, going down, but that is not going to change much as the toxic, misogynist system remains intact.
There’s a possibility that there may be some women out there who knew or heard that Harvey was willing to give things (career advancement, money, etc.) in exchange for sex and actively pursued that. Unless he did the threatening/blackmailing, stalking, etc., or took things beyond whatever they consented to, they’re not automatically victims. They’re adults who had sex for something they wanted. But Weinstein is a rapist and a calculating, abusive predator- no consensual sex he may have had with any other woman erases his abuse, harassment, threatening, slandering, and blackmailing of the others. With everything that we know about his behaviors so far, it would not be shocking if most ‘sexual contact’ he’s had with women throughout his career involved abuse, coercion, or harassment. This Terry Gilliam is trying to call Harvey’s victims liars by painting them all as ‘ambitious adults’ who offered consensual sex and were treated well but are bitter now. But since there are apparently women who have stories about him too, his defense of Weinstein isn’t that surprising.
Any culture that leaves women feeling that trading sex will get them ahead is flawed ab initio.
I definitely think a culture is flawed if/when sex is the only option women are allowed to use to get their most basic needs met, (although I would not look down on a woman as ‘damaged’, less than, or anything else like that for making use of that option). But an upper-class actress from LA offering sex in exchange for a role or luxury items she wants (another example: Pursuing a billionaire for the lifestyle when one is already a millionaire) is different. I wouldn’t look down on her either, but unless she said otherwise, I wouldn’t automatically see her as a victim. Her body, her choice.
Do you really see her choices as operating in a vacuum from the society in which she lives?
The same concern can be raised about the belief that it’s only OK for people to do sexual things for some reasons, but not for others. Does that belief operate in a vacuum from the society in which people live?
Funny how times have changed.
His words trashing Williams were often quoted by the devoted Ledger ‘s fans, even on this site, as reliable proof she was the evil in the relationship, cutting him from his daughter etc..
It has taken a few years to turn the tables on this one.
I’ve never seen that. People have leveled varying criticisms at Michelle, but any mentions of that BS Gilliam interview have been incredibly few and far between ( I read it when it initially came out, and thought it was awful at the time, and have kept an eye out for people referencing it because it was so egregiously bad).
But the interviews from Ledger’s family that confirmed William’s keeping the child from him (and his family after his passing) are nothing? I fell for the Gilliam trap- willingly admit that. But I do recall interviews of Heath’s father and sisters stating Michelle was keeping the girl away from them after Heath’s passing.
His family has said they have a great relationship with Michelle. If you can find any interviews saying otherwise, feel free to share the links.
And the “keeping Matilda away” was stuff like ‘it’s hard to put a 2 year old on multiple transcontinental flights’. If you fell for that Gilliam interview in the first place…
Oh I fell for it hard. I was 18 when Ledger died and adored him. I still do. i feel like I remember this very site running stories on Kim saying Williams kept her from them. I can’t remember if they were Terry originals in terms of it being sourced/started from him. Another day, another comment from you. I can almost bet that you’ll make a comment to mine anytime I post.
I could but the chances you’ll look after today passes makes it not worth the effort. Especially when google exists. So yeah, you can google instead of being passive aggressive.
I remember it too, and I remember it being bullshit. And I check my comments on this site every day.
So a drug addict died of an overdose and people found a way to blame his ex? Assuming that his contact with the kid was restricted (and that this isnt just the sexist lie it sounds like) why didnt he simply move to court for more access? Also, assuming that its true, I would still suggest that given his drug issues that were severe enough to kill him, perhaps it was for the best to protect the defenseless child.
finally the voice of reason, thank you!
At this point, the minute a man starts whining about how like totally unfair #MeToo is being to the poor menz, I start the mental countdown clock to when the stories about the whiner start coming out. Ellen Barkin didn’t disappoint.
He is vile and I believe satanic af
TG is a simply put: a disgusting piece of shit along with Matt D. and Harvey W.
So Mr. Gilliam,
Is this your “MeToo” story? Did you willingly consent to have sex with Mr. Weinstein in order to further your career? I mean, you seem very open that having sex with Harvey Weinstein is a reasonable price to pay for getting to make “The Brothers Grimm”. I’ve seen that film, and obviously you weren’t hired for your directing talent, so you must have bent over.
See how that works? It applies to women, but when you make a lousy movie with a terrible person, it applies to you too.
👏👏👏
So much goodness in these comments.
Heh heh, I bet he would spit nails if he read that.
The truth is metaphorically he did take it just like other men took it from Harvey. Which is why HW is never getting another chance.
It’s amazing to me how these people who argue that “well, some women slept with him willingly to get work” never gets to the point that it’s unconscionable that he was trading work for sex.
How is that morally appropriate or even professional? Disgusting.
No one should have to make that choice. Even if an actor offered sex for work (rather than being subject to his pleas/demands/assault), he should say no if he was a decent human being or merely good at his job.
Jerks like this get into positions of power precisely because they see this kind of leverage/coercion as a perk of the job, to pressure women normally totally beyond their reach to put up with or succumb to their grotesque advances, and keep quiet about it afterwards.
Very good point. People like to blame the victims or those navigating the system from a position of disadvantage – that seems to be TG’s default. What he says about women is so archetypal too, which makes me question his creativity as well as his morals. Michelle Williams is a shrew, Amber Heard a gold digger, aspiring actors cunning seductresses keen to get ahead. I bet he would refer to his wife as a “saint.” I mean, she is, for putting up with his decades-old douchelordery, but I am also sure she is more complex than TG could ever do justice to.
He and Harvey look like brothers.
Ugh, yes. This is what happens when you don’t get that painting into the attic before you start committing all the misogyny and sexual assaults.
Not that it matters to the meat of the article, but not sure I would call Terry Gilliam British. He was the one American in Monty Python. He was nearly 30 when he got his British citizenship.
THANK YOU
He’s not British, he’s American. He moved to England ages ago with the Pythons.
I’ll always admire their work. The Pythons were geniuses.
But Gilliam is a creep.
Would be interested to hear Lena Heady weigh in on this re. The Brothers Grimm. I remember Damon and Ledger saying something at the time about fighting to get her cast.
RIP in peace, Matt Damon
Wonder if Uma Thurman will weigh in. One of her earliest movies, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. was directed by Gilliam. She was a teenager.
Matt Damon was also out there saying he would believe a friend or even a colleague over a woman claiming sexual harrasment or assault and he implied that some men sign nondisclosure agreements just to get it over with, not because they are guilty.
This is what I found offensive. It’s hard enough for those who are assaulted or harrassed to be believed without famous people making statements that infer they won’t or shouldn’t be believed. Unfortunately, the opinions of actors influence others and; thus, I think they have a higher responsibility to be careful about what they say especially when it may cause someone to not come forward for fear of not being believed.