Perhaps the main takeaway from the #MeToo movement was that many women out were victims of sexual harassment in one way or another - and every single one of them was done with being victimised. However, there were many other things we could gather from the international movement, one of them being that if you were closely linked to a man - in particular, a straight, white, powerful man - you were often somehow considered slightly less violable.
This theory was broached by Nicole Kidman when she recently opened up about her marriage to Tom Cruise in an interview with New York magazine’s The Cut. In the article, the 51-year-old actress states that being Cruise's wife offered her "protection" from sexual harassment, admitting that she had to "grow up" and make it on her on when they separated.
"Being married to Tom Cruise at 22 is something I’m always reluctant to talk about, because I’m married now to the man who is my great love [Keith Urban], and it almost feels disrespectful," said the Big Little Lies star.
She continued: "That said, I got married very young, but it definitely wasn’t power for me - it was protection. I married for love, but being married to an extremely powerful man kept me from being sexually harassed. I would work, but I was still very much cocooned. So when I came out of it at 32, 33, it’s almost like I had to grow up."
The Hollywood couple met on the set of Days of Thunder in 1990 and married in the same year. They were together for 11 years and adopted two children, Isabella, 25, and Connor, 23, before calling it quits in 2001, with the actor citing irreconcilable differences.
In addition, Kidman spoke out about Hollywood’s sexual-harassment scandal, confessing that she, like most other women out there, has had her fair share of #MeToo moments.
"Of course I've had #MeToo moments — since I was little!" she said, "But do I want to expose them in an article? No. Do they come out in my work? Absolutely. I’m open and raw. I want to have my well of experience and emotion tapped into, used — and I’m not just talking about sexual harassment. I’m talking about loss, death, the full array of life. But it has to be by the right people so it’s not abused again. I’m making a movie with Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie about Roger Ailes."
In new movie Fair and Balanced, Kidman plays former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson, who blew the whistle on the company’s culture of sexism and harassment when she and more than two dozen other women accused chairman and CEO Roger Ailes of sexual harassment.
The Cold Mountain actress is not the only star to speak out about how Hollywood men could often use their power to protect women. In May, Gwyneth Paltrow accused Harvey Weinstein of sexually harassing her in the 1990s, claiming that Brad Pitt, her boyfriend at the time, used his power to protect shield her.
Claiming the producer tried to make a pass at her in a hotel room, she said: "I told him [Brad] right away and I was very shaken by the whole thing. We were at the opening of Hamlet on Broadway. Harvey was there and Brad Pitt – it was like the equivalent of throwing him against the wall, energetically."
She continued: "He said, ‘If you ever make her feel uncomfortable again, I’ll kill you.’ Or something like that. It was so fantastic. He leveraged his fame and power to protect me at a time when I didn’t have fame or power yet."
You can learn more about the Time's Up movement or donate here.
