As accusations of sexual assault and abuse continue to pile up against Harvey Weinstein and other film executives, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: Hollywood has a grave problem with harassment against women.
The Hollywood Reporter addressed the scandal in a clip released Friday of an episode of its “Roundtables” series that features celebrities and industry insiders discussing various topics.
The panel included six film producers, all whom have movies gunning for an Academy Award in the upcoming Oscars. In the full clip above, the producers discuss how Hollywood normalized abuse of power and sexual harassment.
But one detail stood out as striking.
Of the those at the table, there was only one woman ― Amy Pascal, a film producer and former Sony Pictures executive.
Although the roundtable wasn’t specifically about sexual abuse and women in Hollywood ― that occurred as part of a discussion about the upcoming awards season ― its lack of female representation is telling.
The majority of executive producers in Hollywood are male, making up 83 percent of the industry, according to one university study. The Reporter’s panel reflected this imbalance.
Matthew Belloni, the Reporter’s editorial director who hosted the roundtable, did not return a request for comment on which producers the outlet contacted to appear in the episode.
The Reporters’ “Roundtables” series has featured many female celebrities and industry insiders in the past, even featuring episodes with an all-female panel.
Still, as the scrutiny on Hollywood’s treatment and abuse of women intensifies, people were not satisfied with the most recent roundtable clip.
When asked about it, panelist Seth Rogen told a Twitter follower he noticed the lack of women at the table, too.
Pascal has recently produced two historical dramas with female leads: “The Post,” which shows the role played by The Washington Post’s first female publisher, Katharine Graham, in exposing a presidential cover-up, and “Molly’s Game,” which centers on Molly Bloom, the Olympic-class skier who was wanted by the FBI for running high-stakes poker games.
When asked if Weinstein is an outlier in the film industry, Pascal told the roundtable, “No.”
“I think it’s a tragic situation for our business,” Pascal said. “The women who stood up have to be applauded because that’s really really hard to do when nobody wants to stand up and the silence is deafening.
She added, “That’s the part we’re responsible for.”
The full episode, which also features producers Judd Apatow, Jason Blum, Ridley Scott and Eric Fellner, will eventually air on the Reporter’s website and later this year on SundanceTV.
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