Cannes: Cate Blanchett says #MeToo ‘was shut down very quickly’ in Hollywood

Cate Blanchett has spoken candidly about her belief that Hollywood’s #MeToo movement “was shut down very quickly,” saying that many of the issues it sought to address still persist on film sets across the United States.

Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday (May 17), the two-time Oscar winner reflected on the fading momentum of the #MeToo movement during a wide-ranging onstage conversation. Blanchett, who has long been vocal about gender equality in the film industry, questioned why conversations surrounding harassment and abuse appear to have lost visibility in recent years.

“I think it disappeared far too quickly, which is quite telling,” Blanchett said. She added that while people with public platforms can often speak about their experiences with a certain degree of protection, ordinary individuals who join the MeToo conversation are frequently silenced. “When everyday women and people say ‘MeToo’, why is that conversation shut down?” she asked.

Blanchett also spoke about the lack of progress regarding gender equality and women’s safety on American film sets. Drawing from her own experiences, she noted that the imbalance remains deeply visible, with women continuing to be heavily outnumbered by men in many productions.

According to the actor, working in male-dominated environments can often create a repetitive and limiting atmosphere. While clarifying that she has no issue with men, Blanchett explained that homogeneous workplaces tend to foster the same patterns of behavior and conversations, something she has become accustomed to over the years but now finds increasingly exhausting for everyone involved.

The #MeToo movement gained worldwide attention in 2017 after numerous women came forward with allegations of abuse, harassment, and sexism involving powerful figures in Hollywood. The movement led to widespread calls for structural reform within the entertainment industry.

In 2018, Blanchett served as jury president at the Cannes Film Festival and participated in a red-carpet protest highlighting gender inequality in cinema.

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She stood alongside 81 other women on the steps of the Palais des Festivals, symbolising the number of female directors whose films had been selected for Cannes’ main competition throughout the festival’s history. In comparison, 1,866 male directors had been selected during the same period.