The crop of hosts currently holding down the late night positions on each of the major networks all fall on the liberal side of the political aisle, and usually they have a grand old time ganging up on conservatives.
This time, however, Late Show host Stephen Colbert seemed to surprise actor Ben Affleck with some pretty straight forward questions about Harvey Weinstein, and accusations made against Affleck himself.
“Is this a comedy show?” Affleck says immediately after Colbert shifts topics to Weinstein. Later on in the conversation, Affleck describes the accusations against him, which involved him hugging someone and “grabbing her breasts” during the hug. He claimed not to remember the incident.
Regardless of how one thinks about Colbert and his political views, he should be credited for asking the uncomfortable questions to powerful actors. Hollywood clearly has a deeply rooted problem with sexual abuse, and the only way they’ll be held accountable is if more people inside Hollywood find the courage to call out the abusers, no matter how powerful they are.
In the past, obviously, not enough have been willing to put their own careers at risk. Corey Feldman is a good example of what happens to actors who tried to speak out.
Here’s the portion that caused Affleck to squirm just a bit, and it begins around 2:20 into the clip: