20 July 2018

Actor Henry Cavill Eloquently Unpacked The "Me Too" Movement

Action star Henry Cavill’s recent comments on the Me Too movement were met with praises after the actor suggested that by going up to talk to a woman, he would risk being "called a rapist or something."

The "Man of Steel" actor spoke with GQ Australia and, after parsing through his film career and how he deals with the paparazzi, he was asked about what he's learned from the Me Too movement.

"I’ve been fortunate enough to not be around the kind of people who behave that way," he said.

"To my memory there’s been no moments where I look back and think, 'Ooh, OK, maybe someone shouldn’t have gone through that,'" he said. "I know there have been situations with people I've worked with being perhaps overfamiliar with some of the actresses. But, I've always walked up to them and said, '‘Hey, are you all right? That’s creepy.'"

The interviewer pressed on and asked the actor if the movement has made him reflect on his own actions, to which he said he's "never been like that." He went a step further unpack the preposterous movement, saying that "any human being alive today, if someone casts too harsh a light on anything, you could be like, 'Well, OK, yeah, when you say it like that, maybe.'"

"But it's such a delicate and careful thing to say because there’s flirting, which, for example, in a social environment is in context ― and is acceptable. And that has been done to me as well, in return," he said.

Men's behavior "has to change," Cavill said, but "it's important to also retain the good things, which were a quality of the past, and get rid of the bad things."

Cavill revealed that women really wants to be chased around and said, "There’s a traditional approach to that, which is nice. I think a woman should be wooed and chased, but maybe I’m old-fashioned for thinking that."

"It’s very difficult to do that if there are certain rules in place. Because then it’s like: 'Well, I don't want to go up and talk to her, because I’m going to be called a rapist or something,'" he said.

"So you’re like, 'Forget it, I'm going to call an ex-girlfriend instead, and then just go back to a relationship, which never really worked,'" Cavill said. "But it’s way safer than casting myself into the fires of hell, because I'm someone in the public eye, and if I go and flirt with someone, then who knows what’s going to happen? Now? Now you really can’t pursue someone further than, 'No.' It's like, 'OK, cool.' But then there's the, 'Oh, why’d you give up?' And it’s like, 'Well, because I didn’t want to go to jail?'"