Sexual Predator.
April 29, 2021 1:32 PM   Subscribe

Actor Noel Clarke accused of groping, harassment and bullying by 20 women. Extremely uncomfortable and important reading. It's not for me to comment on anything in the article, the words of the victims speak for themselves.
posted by feelinglistless (26 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Oh no!
posted by Coaticass at 1:41 PM on April 29, 2021


And yet... Kevin Spacey has never had his BAFTA revoked nor any of the following:

- Casey Affleck, Bill Murray, Gary Oldman, Geoffrey Rush, Dustin Hoffman, Richard Dreyfuss to name a few.

This is not to speculate on the accusations themselves, I'm just wondering *what could possibly* be behind the BAFTA Organisation inconsistency?

Hmm.

[Edited for Typos]
posted by Faintdreams at 1:45 PM on April 29, 2021 [20 favorites]


What no not Mickey Smith. Sigh
posted by dis_integration at 2:21 PM on April 29, 2021 [1 favorite]


This is not to speculate on the accusations themselves, I'm just wondering *what could possibly* be behind the BAFTA Organisation inconsistency?

They're trying to manage the fall-out from giving someone an award days after being aware of these accusations? BAFTA haven't ever suspended many members, just Weinstein I can recall. With the others they could always say, "yeah, terrible, but that award was given decades ago". They literally just gave this award, so it does make them look like they don't care at all.
posted by atrazine at 2:29 PM on April 29, 2021 [19 favorites]


Ah poop
posted by Kitteh at 2:33 PM on April 29, 2021


I'm just wondering *what could possibly* be behind the BAFTA Organisation inconsistency?

Of the people you name, it appears only Dustin Hoffman is a member of BAFTA. The others cannot have membership suspended of an organisation they don't belong to. Also, the award Clarke was stripped of was a career award (Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema) rather than an award for a particular performance or work on a specific film, and is more prestigious. It's a fundamentally different thing from, say, Dustin Hoffman winning for Tootsie.
posted by Grangousier at 2:38 PM on April 29, 2021 [13 favorites]


What no not Mickey Smith 20 bullied, abused, harassed and molested women.

FTFY

In all seriousness, "oh no, not <actor/character I really like>" is super tone-deaf. I would hope we're way past that.
posted by tzikeh at 4:29 PM on April 29, 2021 [11 favorites]


Woodshed 'em all. Got no time for lousy dudes in this life any more.
posted by seanmpuckett at 4:30 PM on April 29, 2021 [6 favorites]


The behaviour that always comes up in these allegations is so beyond the pale, and so typical and consistent. I don't get it, these are young men, and I am in no way a good man, and I can't understand anyone thinking they can do these things. Can we start raising men to not be predatory assholes?
posted by Meatbomb at 5:33 PM on April 29, 2021 [14 favorites]


In all seriousness, "oh no, not " is super tone-deaf. I would hope we're way past that.

I don't see that being disappointed that a character is now tainted in any way supercedes (let alone precludes) being primarily concerned about/horrified on behalf of the women. It's also not unreasonable to assume that concern/horror is assumed here. Still, it's a fair point that a person might ought to lead with that though, fair enough.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:39 PM on April 29, 2021 [13 favorites]


It's almost like, if we don't find a way to transmit values and the reasoning behind them to everyone when they're young, they just don't get it.
posted by amtho at 5:40 PM on April 29, 2021 [6 favorites]


The behaviour that always comes up in these allegations is so beyond the pale, and so typical and consistent. I don't get it, these are young men, and I am in no way a good man, and I can't understand anyone thinking they can do these things. Can we start raising men to not be predatory assholes?

When they're living the dream, not that many know what to do about the perpetual erections.
posted by jamjam at 7:28 PM on April 29, 2021


But the thing is, jamjam, even if I was super rich and powerful I would not send random women pictures of my junk... it is just so obviously wrong and uncool.
posted by Meatbomb at 7:31 PM on April 29, 2021


Still, it's a fair point that a person might ought to lead with that though, fair enough.

It would be one thing if that was just what was led with, and comment/discussion of the awfulness came after. That was the sum total of the comment.
posted by tzikeh at 10:04 PM on April 29, 2021 [1 favorite]


I don't get it, these are young men

Noel Clarke is 45.
posted by tzikeh at 10:06 PM on April 29, 2021 [3 favorites]


Bafta’s decision to venerate Clarke moved numerous women to break their silence.
Those brave women, I hope they can find some peace.
posted by ellieBOA at 10:36 PM on April 29, 2021 [5 favorites]


Noel Clarke is 45.

But you’re not really middle-aged until you’re sixty la la la la I can’t hear you.
posted by Phanx at 1:10 AM on April 30, 2021 [3 favorites]


My god, this article just keeps going.

The number of women whose stories have to pile up before we find out about someone like this is ghastly.
posted by eirias at 3:44 AM on April 30, 2021 [16 favorites]


I mean, aside from his turn as Mickey Smith on Doctor Who, I haven't seen any of Clarke's movies. But I was aware of him as a Black filmmaker lauded for making those movies so in the back of my head, I was like, "Oh, well that's great and I am glad he didn't get typecast because of Doctor Who."

I mean, the entire thing is fucking disgusting, but I didn't know those movies had graphic sex scenes that he wrote and starred in himself. If I had known that before all this broke, I would have recognized that red flag because yeah, that is a big old red flag.
posted by Kitteh at 5:08 AM on April 30, 2021 [4 favorites]


Given the amount of accusations and straight up gross behaviour reported from men working on the RTD era Who set (including John Barrowman, who reportedly flashed/whipped out his dick on multiple occasions), as well as Christopher Eccleston's remarks about how horrible things were, I'm seriously side-eyeing everyone involved with casting and allowing these guys to continue working.

It's not just about what these men got away with, but how many people were willing to pretend they didn't see it and it wasn't a problem.
posted by fight or flight at 6:16 AM on April 30, 2021 [15 favorites]


It has always seemed ominous that Christopher Eccleston, reportedly a very decent, standup person, has repeatedly referred to problems with "the environment [he] had to work in" on Doctor Whoand declined to elaborate.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:03 AM on April 30, 2021 [7 favorites]


ITV pulled tonight's final episode of Viewpoint. Which sucks for all the other women and men who worked on the show and have that taken away from them.
posted by Klipspringer at 10:11 AM on April 30, 2021 [1 favorite]


In all seriousness, "oh no, not " is super tone-deaf. I would hope we're way past that.

bad people do bad things all the time, and it's terrible that people have to suffer those injustices, but the only reason we're hearing about this one is because this is a famous person that millions of people have a mental association with through their cultural products, so it seems pretty natural a reaction to me?
posted by dis_integration at 7:02 PM on April 30, 2021


I haven't thought about this actor since he was on Doctor Who. Somehow I'm not even shocked to hear more fucking horror stories along these lines. I'm so sick of men being like this. I know it's not all of them, but it's so damn many of them!
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:05 PM on April 30, 2021 [1 favorite]


It's up to 26 women accusing Clarke now, the Barrowman talk is picking up steam, and it turns out the actor who played Adam Mitchell on the show was convicted of assaulting two women in 2017. The Doctor Who set had some fucked up people on it.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:02 AM on May 3, 2021


It's not the male perpetrators that make a bad environment, it's the hordes of complacent men who tolerate it. If the moment someone tried something was met with immediate and vociferous censure, there'd be a lot less of it. So, you know, if you've ever turned your back or just shrugged, you're going to hell too.
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:38 AM on May 3, 2021


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