Jane Fonda says she knew about allegations of sexual misconduct against Harvey Weinstein last year and is “ashamed” she didn’t say anything about it.
“I found out about Harvey a year ago, and I’m ashamed I didn’t say anything right then,” the two-time Academy Award winning actress and former longtime Atlantan told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “I guess it hadn’t happened to me and I didn’t feel it was my place.”
Fonda, 79, told Amanpour she’d learned about Weinstein’s behavior from fellow actress Rosanna Arquette. The New York Times reported this week that Arquette once rebuffed a bathrobe-clad Weinstein’s advances in a hotel suite where she’d gone to pick up a script.
“It came to me as a shock and great disappointment,” Fonda said. “Apparently it was so common that everyone must have known.”
It was the second time on Thursday that Fonda weighed in on Weinstein and Hollywood’s treatment of women in general.
“I’m not surprised. I’m glad it’s coming out,” Fonda told “CNBC Meets . . .” host Tania Bryer in a lengthy interview. “Thank God women are talking, because back in the days we were too scared to talk, because we thought no one would ever hire us again, you know.”
Asked by Bryer what should happen to Weinstein “and people like him,” Fonda, 79, didn’t pull any punches:
“I think they should all go to jail, and you know let's put Bill Cosby in there,” Fonda said, according to a CNBC transcript. “But the question is not just Hollywood, you know …..this is epidemic.”
Fonda told Bryer she’s never worked with Weinstein and that she was “old” by the time she met him.
“If you'll notice, this kind of thing happens to young women who are vulnerable,” Fonda said. “It's hard for them to defend themselves.”
She told Amanpour much the same thing -- if even more pointedly -- about the behavior of Weinstein and some other Hollywood powerbrokers.
"These tend to be men who don't treat other people well, not people they need," she said. "Not Meryl Streep. Not me in my old age."
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