Actress and activist Emma Watson has donated £1mn to kickstart a new British fund to help women facing harassment and abuse at work, launched ahead of yesterday’s Baftas and backed by hundreds of female entertainment stars.
The justice and equality fund was announced in an open letter supporting the US Time’s Up movement, signed by around 200 women, including actresses Kate Winslet, Emma Thompson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Keira Knightley and Saoirse Ronan.
The letter is addressed to “dear sisters” — as was a similar missive signed by Hollywood stars last month — and calls for an international movement to stamp out a culture of abuse exposed by the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
The fundraising page for the new fund shows Watson, who won fame in the Harry Potter films and is now a UN Women goodwill ambassador, made the opening £1mn donation.
Knightley and British actor Tom Hiddleston have both given £10,000 to the fund, which will be used to set up a network of advice, support and advocacy projects to tackle abuse across all sectors of work.
It follows a legal aid fund set up by A-list stars in the US to help both women and men abused at work.
“In the very near past, we lived in a world where sexual harassment was an uncomfortable joke; an unavoidable, awkward part of being a girl or a woman,” the letter published in The Observer newspaper says.
“In 2018, we seem to have woken up in a world ripe for change. If we truly embrace this moment, a line in the sand will turn to stone.”
The letter was published ahead of the British Academy Film Awards yesterday night, when stars repeated the protest staged at last month’s Golden Globes awards and wore black in a show of solidarity with victims.
The letter emphasises that revelations about abuse in Hollywood have now spread across the world, saying the movement is about more than just the entertainment industry.