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Alec Baldwin may have caught some serious flack for his delayed response to the now 300-plus accusations of sexual misconduct against his buddy James Toback, but now he claims he wants to change and help shift industry behavior. While receiving a career honor from The Paley Center for Media yesterday, Baldwin opened up about his track record with women and admitted he was not oblivious to the rumors that have been circulating for years.
In a surprisingly candid discussion with longtime Lorne Michaels consigliere Steve Higgins, Baldwin confessed to disrespecting women. “I certainly have treated women in a very sexist way. I’ve bullied women. I’ve overlooked women. I’ve underestimated women,” he said. “From time to time, I’ve done what a lot of men do, which is … when you don’t treat women the same way you treat men. You don’t. I’m from a generation where you really don’t and I’d like that to change. I really would like that to change.”
Baldwin went on to discuss his hopes for changing the workplace and making it a comfortable place for everyone, noting that the denigration of women might be affecting the “business” negatively. “I think it’s important for us to try to make the workplace and beyond not only comfortable and right and fair and appropriate but as productive, as well. I think a lot of what we’re dealing with within this issue is hurting our business. It’s making it less productive.”
The actor’s admission that he’s been aware of rumors in Hollywood surrounding sexual misconduct, however, came as a bit of a surprise, as he’d recently stated that he’d been completely blindsided about the allegations against Toback:
“I knew of certain things, that there were rumors of things happening to people, but I didn’t necessarily know the scope, when you hear the hundreds and hundreds of women who are complaining about this. It’s been a very eye-opening experience for me personally. We’ve got to be vigilant in a new way to make sure that everybody is comfortable and that we get the job done together that we’re there to do.”
While the Emmy-winning actor deserves some credit for acknowledging past transgressions against women, it’s hard not to wonder whether or not this was a preemptive move to protect himself from the media storm affecting so many other powerful Hollywood men at the moment. Baldwin, notorious for his hot head and the infamous scathing voicemail he left his daughter Ireland in 2007 in which he called her a “rude thoughtless pig,” may want to see the industry change, but that starts with people like him. Let’s just hope he plans on leading by example.
