Jessica Alba is opening up about her own #MeToo story in a powerful interview with CNN, where she discussed her interaction with Harvey Weinstein and thoughts on the movement.
“It’s about time,” she told CNN regarding #MeToo, which went viral after allegations against Harvey Weinstein surfaced. “I think things have been imbalanced for way too long.”
Alba has interacted with Weinstein in the past—his former studio The Weinstein Company produced her 2005 film Awake—but says she was never assaulted by him because she was “never in a situation where it was just one on one.”
The actress and entrepreneur, who has been in Hollywood for almost 25 years, did reveal that even though she didn’t face this with Weinstein, she has experienced her own share of sexual harassment and discrimination along the way. “As a young actress growing up in the business, you just accepted that that’s the way you were going to be treated,” she said. “[There were] lots of different circumstances. I mean, I’ve been doing this since I was 12. Imagine what that’s like.”
Though distressing, this is not at all surprising. According to a survey conducted by Stop Street Harassment earlier this year, most women come face-to-face with sexual harassment during their pre-teen and teen years, with 16 percent experiencing it for the first time between the ages of 11 and 13.
Being that Alba fell within this spectrum herself, she is utilizing her past to teach an important lesson to her daughters. “I’ve been in lots of different situations and that’s why it’s important for me to talk to my girls about them, knowing you have control over your body and over situations you want to put yourself in,” she said. “There are warning signs and there’s that feeling in your stomach and you have to listen to that feeling. It’s probably going to be different talking to my son about that stuff.”