IN AN INTERVIEW with NBC’s Today show, Sean Penn shared his thoughts on the #MeToo movement which was established in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal last October.

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While promoting his new Hulu series, The First, the Oscar-winning actor, alongside his co-star Natasha McElhone, was encouraged to discuss whether the #MeToo movement informed the show’s premise which depicts Natasha’s character as the visionary.

And as far as Sean is concerned, there is no correlation.

I would like to think that none of it was influenced by what they would call the movement of #MeToo. I think it is influenced by things that are developing in terms of the empowerment of women, acknowledging each other and being acknowledged by men.

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Arguing that the movement was largely ‘shouldered by a receptacle of the salacious’, the actor believes that the endeavour has had a polarising effect within society.

The spirit of much of what has been the #MeToo movement is to divide men and women.

He went on to say that women he has spoken to off-camera are of a similar opinion, adding: “Women that I talk to, that I listen to, of all walks of life, is that there is a common sense that is not represented at all in the discussion when it come to the media discussion of it.”

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 itself is attacked.

Dismissing the idea that there are too many shades of grey within the movement, Sean argued:

I think it’s too black and white. In most things that are very important, it’s really good to just slow down.

You can watch the full interview here.

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