Monty Python star Terry Gilliam under fire for defending Matt Damon against #MeToo 'mob rule'

Terry Gilliam, the Monty Python star and Hollywood director, is facing a backlash after he defended Matt Damon against the "mob rule" of the #MeToo movement, claiming that while some women suffered, others used Harvey Weinstein to further their careers.

The 77-year-old American-born animator said Weinstein "is a monster" and that there were "plenty of monsters out there... There are other people (still) behaving like Harvey" in the film industry, abusing their power for sex.

Weinstein was exposed because he "is an a**hole and he made so many enemies," he told AFP.

But Gilliam stirred controversy by saying the reaction against the wave of sexual abuse and harassment revelations had become ugly and "simplistic... people are frightened to say things, to think things.

"It is a world of victims. I think some people did very well out of meeting with Harvey and others didn't. The ones who did knew what they were doing. These are adults, we are talking about adults with a lot of ambition.

"Harvey opened the door for a few people, a night with Harvey - that's the price you pay," said the maker of Brazil and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

"Some people paid the price, other people suffered from it."

Gilliam, who is in Paris to direct an opera, Benvenuto Cellini, said the atmosphere around #MeToo had "got silly, people are being described in ridiculous terms as if there is no real humanity left anymore.

"I feel sorry for someone like Matt Damon who is a decent human being. He came out and said all men are not rapists, and he got beaten to death. Come on, this is crazy!"

"I know enough girls who were in Harvey's suites who were not victims and walked out.

"It's crazy how simplified things are becoming. There is no intelligence anymore and people seem to be frightened to say what they really think. Now I am told even by my wife to keep my head a bit low," Gilliam said.

"It's like when mob rule takes over, the mob is out there they are carrying their torches and they are going to burn down Frankenstein's castle."

Gilliam's comments were criticised on social media, with actress Patricia Arquette calling him an "ignorant  privileged successful white man".

"Cry me a river," she added. 

Gilliam went on to say the truth was that abuse of power has "always happened. I don't think Hollywood will change, power always takes advantage, it always does and always has.

"It's how you deal with power -- people have got to take responsibility for their own selves."

Human beings, he said, "are physical creatures. There is touching and there is grabbing, that is the problem. I find it funny that (while this is going on) a self-confessed pussy-grabber is the president of the US and is just walking around.

"I find it incredible," he said, calling Mr Trump a "conman".

Gilliam, who is now a British citizen, also took a swipe at Python colleague John Cleese, saying that "he is an idiot" to support Brexit.

"Look at America under Trump, look at England under the Conservatives - it is just a joke and it is costing fortunes. Britain is part of Europe and to think it can be Great Britain again is utterly foolish.

"It makes me feel like I've gotten very old and I am living through a nightmare world at the moment," he added.

Gilliam said the biggest failure of the 1960s generation was not delivering true equality for women.

"The only thing that we did not do well is get women paid the same money as men are paid for the same job, that's the one big failure of our time."