Terry Gilliam, offensive? The Monty Python alum seems to relish the role, smiling as he tosses off explosive opinions—and his latest Independent interview is no different. "People work so hard to be offended now," says the 79-year-old. "I don't know why I'm doing it. It's not fun anymore." Yet the director of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote still rips into #MeToo, defends white males, and claims Harvey Weinstein's victims made "choices." His most headline-grabbing quotes, along with reactions:
- #MeToo: "Yeah, I said #MeToo is a witch hunt. 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."
- Weinstein: "There are many victims in Harvey's life, and I feel sympathy for them, but then, Hollywood is full of very ambitious people who are adults and they make choices. We all make choices, and I could tell you who did make the choice and who didn't."
- Power: "When you have power, you don't take responsibility for abusing others. You enjoy the power. That's the way it works in reality."
- Feeling blamed: "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. I didn't do it!"
- No tribes: "I don't like the term black or white. I'm now referring to myself as a melanin-light male. I can't stand the simplistic, tribalistic behavior that we're going through at the moment."
- BLT: "It's been so simplified is what I don't like. When I announce that I'm a black lesbian in transition, people take offence at that. Why?" (As the Guardian notes, this harks back to a 2018 Gilliam quote: "My name is Loretta and I'm a BLT, a black lesbian in transition.")
- Response: Pink News calls his remarks "a feeble attempt to prove that white men are the real victims," while the Women's Equality Party in Britain says, "We're tired of white men calling 'witch hunt' and refusing to examine the societal privileges that afford them so much scope to behave poorly without consequence."
- Cruz quote: But Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) approves, saying Gilliam "resists PC orthodoxy."
(Scarlett Johansson got in a bit of trouble over
remarks she made.)
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