Brad Pitt Talks Defending Gwyneth Paltrow From Harvey Weinstein’s Advances

Brad Pitt recently reflected on confronting Harvey Weinstein over two decades ago when the Hollywood mogul sexually harassed Pitt’s then-girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow. 

During an interview with CNN Wednesday, correspondent Christiane Amanpour asked Pitt to reflect on how some believe he is “one of the heroes of this story” because he stood up to Weinstein.

“Well, I think that’s a bit much,” Pitt responded to the “hero” comment. “At that moment, I was just a boy from the Ozarks on the playground. That’s how we confronted things.”

Paltrow told The New York Times in October 2017 that when she was 22, when her career was just taking off, she found herself alone in a hotel room with Weinstein who attempted to massage her and have sex with her. She said then-boyfriend Pitt confronted Weinstein at a movie premiere and warned the producer to never touch Paltrow again.

“I wanted to make sure that nothing happened further because she was going to do two films,” Pitt told Amanpour. “I think the interesting thing is that we — Hollywood specifically but the workplace, men and women’s dynamics — is being recalibrated in a very good way. It’s long overdue. I do think that’s an important story to tell. ”

In an interview with Howard Stern last year, Paltrow credited Pitt’s actions as the reason Weinstein stopped pursuing her.

“It was so fantastic because what he did was, he leveraged his fame and power to protect me, at a time when I didn’t have fame or power yet,” she said. “He’s a good person and Harvey was never inappropriate with me again.”