Anthony Bourdain, the acclaimed chef and TV personality, has voiced public support for the dozens of women who have come forward accusing Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment and assault since the news first broke. Being the boyfriend of Italian actress and director Asia Argento, who is one of the many Weinstein accusers, also gave Bourdain a personal connection to Weinstein's sordid history.
As many celebrities have come forward to express their support for the victims, others have publicly weighed in on their own relationships with Weinstein, including Woody Allen and more recently Quentin Tarantino. The latter director recently spoke about his knowledge of Weinstein's crimes with the New York Times. “I knew enough to do more than I did," Tarantino said. "I knew [Weinstein] did a couple of these things.”
While participating in a Q&A forum at the Produced By conference in New York this weekend, Anthony Bourdain called out Quentin Tarantino, particularly in regards to his complicity surrounding Weinstein's harmful actions. When speaking of a lucrative business deal he was offered, and ultimately turned down because of who was propositioning it, he stated:
[Taking the offer] would have destroyed everything—everything that makes us good, everything that makes us happy, our quality of life. It would have been a lethal compromise, a slow-acting poison that would have nibbled away at our souls until we ended up like Quentin Tarantino, looking back at a life of complicity, shame, and compromise.
When Bourdain was later asked whether or not he was speaking about Tarantino in his remarks, he simply responded, "One might think." Asia Argento then tweeted in direct response, implicitly reaffirming Bourdain's directed comments at Tarantino.
Throughout the media frenzy that has highlighted Weinstein's predatory past, it has been telling to observe which white straight men have come forward to comment on sexual assault. As the demographic that undoubtedly has the most power in Hollywood, and perhaps the closest relationships with people like Harvey Weinstein, they're key players in reducing the kind of behavior that Weinstein was able to get away with for decades. Keep speaking out, because men like Tarantino, who may not be the direct perpetrators, but who knew and stood complacently on the sidelines, must also be held accountable for their inaction.
