Tom Hanks says there is 'no way back' for Harvey Weinstein
Oscar-winning actor said he did not feel complicit with an industry which ignored the allegations for decades but said Hollywood needed to listen to 'everyone who has been a victim'
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Your support makes all the difference.Tom Hanks has said that Hollywood is at a "watershed moment" in history amid the developing scnadal of disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein.
The Oscar-winning actor said that there is "no way back" for Weinstein after he was accused of multiple incidents of sexual assault, harassment and rape.
In a statement issued by his spokesperson last week, Weinstein "unequivocally" denied all accusations of non-consensual sex.
"His [Weinstein's] name will become a noun and a verb," Hanks told the BBC. "It will become an identifying moniker for a state of being for which there was a before and an after."
Asked if he felt complicit as part of the Hollywood industry which allowed the alleged behaviour to continue, Hanks said no.
"If Hollywood and the entertainment industry was the only place where sexual harassment occurred, I would say yes," he responded. "But... that's not the case, it's built into the rules of society.
"It would be too simplistic to say this only happens in Hollywood. I watch Mad Men, you could probably say the same about the advertising agency. Look at the halls of government, how many sex scandals do you have there?"
He added: "We need to listen to everyone who has been a victim, to give them a full-throated opportunity to speak as specifically as they feel comfortable doing and the people in power - the bosses - have to take note of what the new rules are and they have to follow them."
Quentin Tarantino recently admitted that he was aware of some of the allegations surrounding Weinstein's behaviour towards women for decades.
The Pulp Fiction director, who worked with Weinstein on some of his most successful films, said he regretted not taking action with the knowledge he had.
"There was more to it than just the normal rumours, the normal gossip," he told the New York Times. "It wasn't second hand. I knew he did a couple of these things.
"I wish I had taken responsibility for what I heard. If I had done the work I should have done then, I would not have had to work with him."