'There is no coming back for Harvey Weinstein after sexual assault allegations', says Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks in April 2017.
Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival
Francesca Gillett19 October 2017

Hollywood actor and Oscars board member Tom Hanks has said there will be “no coming back for Harvey Weinstein” after the torrent of sexual abuse allegations.

The star said that the claims, which have since encouraged other stars to speak about their experiences of harassment from bosses, marked a "watershed moment".

The Oscars revoked Weinstein’s membership from the elite club last weekend – a decision Hanks said he “completely agrees” with - and the Producers Guild of America also expelled the filmmaker from their ranks.

On Thursday, the BFI stripped Weinstein of his 2002 Fellowship honour saying the claims about Weinstein’s behaviour “are in direct opposition to the BFI’s values”.

Hanks spoke to BBC Radio 4's Will Gompertz days after Weinstein was fired from his film firm, The Weinstein Company, and resigned from its board.

Producer Harvey Weinstein attends the BFI's London Film Festival in October 2010. 
Getty Images

Asked if Weinstein could ever return to high esteem in the industry, Hanks said: "No, not at all."

"I think we are at a watershed moment, this is a sea change. I think his last name will become a noun and a verb. It will become an identifying moniker for a state of being for which there is a before and an after."

He continued: "If Hollywood and the entertainment industry was the only place where sexual harassment occurred, I would say yes (I am complicit in that), but you and I know that that's not the case; it's built into the rules of society.

"There is going to be - righteously, I think - a pause in the discussion for the women to be heard, meaning that perhaps all men, myself included, should pipe down and not try to explain it, and not try to comment on it, certainly not try to defend it or even try to prosecute it.

"What has to happen right now is we need to listen to everyone who has ever been a victim and give them the full-throated opportunity to speak as specifically as they are comfortable to do."

He added: "Anywhere that there are men in power, there are going to be those types of guys that are sexual predators for the women who work underneath them - and it happens in the homosexual community as well.

"There should be a code of ethics posted in every lunch room of every company on the planet, that says 'here is the behaviour that is expected of you as an employee of this company'."

Weinstein, 65, was sacked from his own company after the New York Times first published rape allegations on October 5. Since then he has been accused of sexual assault and harassment by a number of women in the film industry.

The allegations include actresses Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Cara Delevingne, Rose McGowan, Alice Evans and Sophie Dix. An increasing number of Hollywood stars have condemned his alleged actions.

Police in the US and UK are investigating rape and sexual assault allegations against Weinstein, which he has “unequivocally denied”.

Another woman contacted British police on Sunday, claiming Weinstein sexually assaulted her in Westminster in 1992. The latest claim takes the number of allegations investigated by UK police up to five and involving three women.

Additional reporting by Press Association.

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