Actress Huppert comes out in support of #MeToo

Huppert, who last year won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar for the controversial film Elle, was speaking at a press conference in Berlin.

She offered her support to the movement, which has seen many women – the majority American actresses, including high profile names such as Rose McGowan, Uma Thurman and Salma Hayek – speaking out against sexual harassment and abuse. It grew after Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein was accused of abusing his power to behave inappropriately with many actresses who auditioned or worked with him.

Since then, many other men within the entertainment industry have been accused of similar inappropriate behaviour, with actors including Kevin Spacey and Louis C.K losing film roles and other work in the wake of the scandal.

The #MeToo movement rose on social media alongside the French equivalent, “#BalanceTonPorc” with women across the world saying “they too” had been affected by sexual harassment.

“Everything that has been said - since this began several months ago - should have been said,” Huppert explained, stopping short of mentioning Weinstein by name.

“This is why I make films, to speak about women in a certain way. I am personally very happy that certain things have been said, in a definitive way too, I hope.”

She then added her “sympathies and hopes” to the women affected by the #MeToo scandal.

Huppert is known for roles that challenge society’s viewpoint of women, including in Elle, in which she plays a businesswoman who is raped but who refuses to play the traditional victim role and in Eva, in which she plays a prostitute who ends up having a strange power over a playwright.

Not all French actresses have backed the movement, however; in January, Catherine Deneuve was forced to apologise to assault victims after she signed a controversial "open letter" against what it called a "puritanical" "media lynching", and arguing for a man's "right to pester" women.