The Post: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks discuss #MeToo, fake news, Trump and more
At a time when the media is being accused of peddling "fake news," Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks are bringing Hollywood star power to a movie celebrating journalism and the virtues of a free press.
The Post is being hailed as a timely reminder about press freedom, democracy, whistle-blowing and government lies. It recounts the nail-biting behind-the-scenes story of the 1971 publication by The Washington Post of the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the lies behind US involvement in the Vietnam War.
Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep in a still from the Post
But its makers says it is also intended as an ode to feminism that resonates as powerfully today as the 1970s era in which it is set.
In an interview with The New York Times, Streep and Hanks talk about Harvey Weinstein, The Post and its modern relevance among other things.
On the fallout from the Harvey Weinstein scandal
Streep said as person who is not active on Twitter, she "really had to think" before commenting on the scandal which has since engulfed prominent Hollywood A-listers such as her Kramer vs Kramer co-star Dustin Hoffman, Brett Ratner, James Toback and Kevin Spacey.
"I really had to think. Because it really underlined my own sense of cluelessness, and also how evil, deeply evil, and duplicitous, a person he was, yet such a champion of really great work," she said.
Tom Hanks believes the resultant #MeToo movement will act "as a reckoning that is going to make us a better society."
On Dustin Hoffman
Streep feels that her Kramer vs Kramer co-star Hoffman "overstepped" when he slapped her for real during a scene for the 1979 Oscar-winning film.
On Melania and Ivanka's silence
The actor also questioned the silence of US First Lady and President Donald Trump's wife Melania Trump and daughter Ivanka on Trump's infamous locker room talk compelling them both to "speak now."
On fake news
Donald Trump has been particularly scathing about CNN and The New York Times but he has also repeatedly attacked the Washington Post, calling it "dishonest," "phony" and — his favorite — "fake news." Hanks calls this a "guerrilla war" against the First Amendment.
