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Weinstein Accusers Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino Discuss Time's Up at the Oscars

"We're going forward until we have an equitable and safe world for women.”

After arriving at the Academy Awards as each other’s dates earlier tonight, actresses Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino spoke about the Time’s Up movement to ABC’s On the Red Carpet.

“Those of us who have come forward, we’ve often been disbelieved, shamed,” said Judd. “The movement is about externalizing that shame and putting it where it belongs, which is with the perpetrator.”

In many ways, Judd was a pioneer of the #MeToo movement that preceded Time’s Up. Last fall, she was the first actress to publicly come forward with accusations against since-defamed movie mogul Harvey Weinstein in the New York Times expose that rattled the film-industry.

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Sorvino also came forward with sexual harassment allegations against Weinstein, in a New Yorker piece last fall. Less than three months later, she penned an open-letter to Dylan Farrow, apologizing for working with her father Woody Allen, who Farrow first publicly accused of sexual assault in 1992. Since then, Sorvino has been focusing on anti-sexual harassment activism.

“I want people to know that this movement isn't stopping. We're going forward until we have an equitable and safe world for women,” Sorvino told ABC on the red carpet. “We want to take our activism and our power into action and change things for every woman everywhere working in every workplace.”

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Read the full interview below:

ABC: I am here with Mira Sorvino and Ashley Judd. So great to see you ladies. You two were on the forefront of well-known women to come forward with allegations against Harvey Weinstein that lit the match for the Time's Up movement. What do you want people to know about this movement? MIRA SORVINO: I want people to know that this movement isn't stopping. We're going forward until we have an equitable and safe world for women. Right now, I have been very actively supporting legislation in California called Equal Rights Advocates. There is a hashtag, #takethelead, and you can sign their petition, and it's the strongest sweep of bills against sexual harassment anywhere in the country. So we want to take our activism and our power into action and change things for every woman everywhere working in every workplace. ABC: And Ashley, what made you finally have the strength to come forward? ASHLEY JUDD: Well, you can understand why I deferred that question to Mira. I'm so fortunate to be with my friend and acting colleague, fellow humanitarian, fellow Harvard graduate—I chose my date extremely well. I started telling the story about what happened to me when Harvey Weinstein sexually harassed me in 1997 the moment that it happened because I was very fortunate, my dad was with me on that day, and when I emerged from the hotel room, he said he could tell by the look on my face something devastating had happened. What's so spectacular about this moment is that finally the world is able to hear. We women, one: Our voices have been squelched; and number two: those of us who have come forward, we’ve often been disbelieved, minimized, shamed, and so much of the movement is about externalizing that shame and putting it where it belongs, which is with the perpetrator; and us being the phoenixes who can light the way, as Mira said, not only within Hollywood, but for safe and equitable workplaces across all spaces and all sectors. And I would mention that the Time’s Up legal defense fund has over 20,000 folks who donated, raising over $21 million, and anyone in any type of occupation who has experienced sexual misconduct—not just someone in Hollywood, in fact it’s not for us—can go to the Time’s Up website and enlist the help of professional lawyers who, probono, will take on a case. ABC: Alright well thank you ladies so much for stopping by, and enjoy this night.