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Charlize Theron reacts to French TV presenter kissing her interpreter without consent

The actress is promoting her movie Long Shot

Chelsea Ritschel

New York

Friday 26 April 2019 17:22 BST

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Charlize Theron scolds French TV host for kissing interpreter without consent

Charlize Theron has reprimanded a French TV presenter after he kissed her female interpreter without permission.

The incident occurred during a promotional interview on Touche Pas A Mon Poste for the star's upcoming film Long Shot earlier this week.

During the interview, the programme’s host Cyril Hanouna walked over to Theron's interpreter Nadia and kissed her on the cheek before she pulled away.

Following the kiss, Theron responded with shock, stating: “Oh wow, maybe ask next time?”

The star’s co-star Seth Rogen, who was sat alongside her during the interview, also appeared uncomfortable during the incident and concurred with Theron’s comment, adding: “Yes”.

The clip of the interaction has been viewed more than 1.28m times on Twitter, where social media users have praised the actress for defending her interpreter and reminding Hanouna that consent is crucial before such an intimate interaction.

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

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1/12The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Anne Hathaway

The 32-year-old actress said she has already experiences job rejections because of her age. “Now I'm in my early thirties and I'm like, 'Why did that 24-year-old get that part? I was that 24-year-old once. I can't be upset about it, it's the way things are,” she told Glamour.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Helen Mirren

On news that Maggie Gyllenhaal had been turned down for being ‘too old’, aged 37, to play a 55-year-old man’s partner: “It’s f***ing outrageous. It’s ridiculous. Honestly, it’s so annoying. And ’twas ever thus. We all watched James Bond as he got more and more geriatric, and his girlfriends got younger and younger. It’s so annoying.”

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Maggie Gyllenhaal

Gyllenhaal revealed she was told by a Hollywood producer that she was too old, aged 37, to play the love interest of a 55-year-old man. “It was astonishing to me. It made me feel bad, and then it made feel angry, and then it made me laugh,” she said at the time.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep has helped fund an all-female screenwriters group called The Writer’s Lab to encourage more women to pen Hollywood scripts. She previously told Vogue in 2011: “Once women pass childbearing age they could only be seen as grotesque on some level.”

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Emma Thompson

The actress said she thought Hollywood is “still completely s***” when it comes to treating women equally to men. ““When I was younger, I really did think we were on our way to a better world. And when I look at it now, it is in a worse state than I have known it, particularly for women, and I find that very disturbing and sad.”

EPA

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Elizabeth Banks

Banks said she was driven from acting to directing due to the lack of roles for older women in Hollywood. “"[Industry sexism] drove me to direct for sure. I definitely was feeling that I was unfulfilled and a little bit bored by the things that were coming across my desk. I mean look at Gwyneth Paltrow who has her Oscar [for Shakespeare in Love] and played fifth banana to Iron Man,” she told Deadline.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Viola Davis

“I had never seen a 49-year-old, dark-skinned woman who is not a size 2 be a sexualised role in TV or film. I'm a sexual woman, but nothing in my career has ever identified me as a sexualised woman. I was the prototype of the ‘mommified’ role,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Liv Tyler

The Lord of the Rings actress said she only get cast in roles where she is treated as a “second class citizen” at the age of 38. “When you’re in your teens or twenties, there is an abundance of ingenue parts which are exciting to play. But at [my age], you’re usually the wife or the girlfriend - a sort of second-class citizen. There are more interesting roles for women when they get a bit older,” she told More magazine.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Cate Blanchett

The actress famously called out sexism on the red carpet at the 2014 Screen Actors Guild Awards. When a camera operator scanned her up and down, she said: “Do you do this to the guys?” In her Oscar acceptance speech for Blue Jasmine, she reminded the film industry that movies with leading women can still be successful. “And thank you to... those of us in the industry who are still foolishly clinging to the idea that female films, with women at the centre, are niche experiences. They are not -- audiences want to see them and, in fact, they earn money. The world is round, people.”

Gareth Cattermole/Getty

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Ellen Page

Asked if she had ever encountered sexism in Hollywood, Page told The Guardian: ‘Oh my God, yeah! It's constant! It's how you're treated, it's how you're looked at, how you're expected to look in a photoshoot, it's how you're expected to shut up and not have an opinion, it's how you... If you're a girl and you don't fit the very specific vision of what a girl should be, which is always from a man's perspective, then you're a little bit at a loss.”

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Zoe Saldana

The actress says she refuses roles where she has to play the generic girlfriend, wife or sexy bombshell. "It's very hard being a woman in a man's world, and I recognised it was a man's world even when I was a kid. It's an inequality and injustice that drove me crazy, and which I always spoke out against — and I've always been outspoken,” she told Manhattan magazine.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Charlize Theron

The actress spoke to ELLE about negotiating equal pay for the Snow White and the Huntsman sequel: "This is a good time for us to bring this to a place of fairness, and girls need to know that being a feminist is a good thing. It doesn't mean that you hate men. It means equal rights. If you're doing the same job, you should be compensated and treated in the same way."

Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

“Being an interpreter and a woman, I really appreciate what Charlize Theron said when the TV host kissed her interpreter out of the blue,” one woman wrote on Twitter.

Another said: “You are so damn right! Thank you Charlize.”

Others took to social media to criticise Hanouna’s behaviour, and question why the film stars agreed to go on the French show considering the presenter’s past problematic behaviour.

Hanouna previously faced backlash in 2017 for posting a fake advertisement on a gay dating site and then mocking respondents on air. The segment reportedly received more than 20,000 complaints from viewers.

“So I’m just wondering but when will Cyril Hanouna be fired from TPMP or when will his show be cancelled?!" commented one Twitter user.

"Because the fact that Charlize Theron had to let him know how consent works just baffles me… but to be honest he has been called out for his disgusting behaviour before…”

This is not the first time the actress has spoken publicly about the importance of consent and the impacts of the #MeToo movement, which has seen multiple women in Hollywood come forward with their stories of sexual misconduct.

During Dubai's Global Educations & Skills Forum in 2018, Theron said she is optimistic that the film and television industry will improve its outlook and reaction to issues surrounding sexual harassment and assault.

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"And so I can definitely tell you that in my industry, hands down, people are thinking differently, they're talking differently, their awareness is at a level that it's never been before," she said. "And I just don't see how we can move backwards from that... we can only move forwards."

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