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‘White males are blamed for everything wrong with the

world’: ‘Tired’ Terry Gilliam lashes out at #MeToo &
‘o ended’ people
4 Jan, 2020 21:02 / Updated 6 days ago

Director Terry Gilliam at 71st Cannes Film Festival, 2018 ©  REUTERS/Regis Duvignau

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The director of ‘12 Monkeys’ and ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’, Terry
Gilliam, called the #MeToo movement a “witch hunt” and lamented how sensitive
people have become with his brand of humor.

In these strange modern times, even a liberal director like Gilliam can end up
sounding like a conservative voice. In an interview with the Independent
promoting his lm ‘The Man Who Killed Don Quixote’, which has been in various
states of production for 20 years, Gilliam gave his blunt thoughts on everything
from disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein to possibly identifying as a black
 g p y p y y g
lesbian.
Speaking about #MeToo cases, Gilliam said despite there being real victims, the
movement was driven by a mob mentality. 
“Yeah, I said #MeToo is a witch hunt,” Gilliam said. 

q I really feel there were a lot of people, decent people,

or mildly irritating people, who were getting
hammered. That’s wrong. I don’t like mob mentality.
These were ambitious adults.
Q
The director said many who came forward should have taken more responsibility
for their situations as he believes a female character who works as a model and
escort does in his new lm.
“We’re living in a time where there’s always somebody responsible for your
failures, and I don’t like this. I want people to take responsibility and not just
constantly point a nger at somebody else, saying, ‘You’ve ruined my life.’”
Speaking on the topic of producers like Harvey Weinstein, who faced dozens of
sexual assault and sexual harassment accusations that kicked o the #MeToo
movement, Gilliam said no one should be surprised about the things that were
happening in Hollywood. He even revealed that he was once propositioned by a
“well-known actress” for a part in one of his movies. 

q I don’t understand why people behave as if this hasn’t

been going on as long as there’ve been powerful
people. I understand that men have had more power
longer, but I’m tired, as a white male, of being blamed
for everything that is wrong with the world.
Q
Gilliam also doubled down in the interview on a statement he made last year
proclaiming to be a black lesbian. While the “revelation” was meant to be a joke
mocking modern identity politics, ‘woke’ crowds did not see the humor – and
neither did Gilliam’s latest interviewer. 
“I’m talking about being a man accused of all
the wrong in the world because I’m white-
skinned So I better not be a man I better not
 skinned. So I better not be a man. I better not
be white. OK, since I don’t nd men sexually attractive, I’ve got to be a lesbian.
What else can I be? I like girls. These are just logical steps,” he said. “I’m just
trying to make you start thinking. You see, this is the world I grew up in, and with
Python, we could do this stu , and we weren’t o ending people. We were giving
people a lot of laughter.”
On the subject of “giving people a lot of laughter” though, the lmmaker seems
to believe there is little bene t to being the o ensive comedian in today’s
bubble-wrapped culture. 

q People work so hard to be o ended now. I don’t know

why I’m doing it. It’s not fun anymore.
 
Q

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