Bryan Cranston says Spacey and Weinstein could get a second chance

Bryan Cranston says that Hollywood figures accused of sexual misconduct — specifically Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey — could be given a second chance.

In a new BBC interview (see the video) the Emmy-winning Breaking Bad actor was asked if there’s a way back from disgrace for those like Weinstein and Spacey, who have both each been accused by a multitude of people of sexual harassment going back decades.

“It would take time, it would take a society to forgive them, and it would take tremendous contrition on their part,” Cranston says. “And a knowingness that they have a deeply rooted psychological and emotional problem and it takes years to mend that. If they were to show us that they put the work in and were truly sorry and making amends and not defending their actions but asking for forgiveness then maybe down the road there is room for that. Maybe so. Then it would be up to us to determine, case by case, whether or not this person deserves a second chance. And I think in the face of it, we should let that open. We shouldn’t close it off and say, ‘To hell with him, rot, and go away from us for the rest of your life.’ Let’s not do that. Let’s be bigger than that. Let’s leave it open for the few who can make it through that gauntlet of trouble and who have reclaimed their life and their dignity and their respect for others. Maybe it’s possible.”

Recently, Cranston made headlines by having a more condemning take on sexual harassment in Hollywood, when he declared Spacey’s career “is over … he’s not a very good person.”

The actor (who currently stars in Richard Linklater’s Last Flag Flying) also made waves last month with another opinion, slamming those rooting for Donald Trump to not be successful as president (while also noting he didn’t vote for him).

“It would be egotistical for anyone to say, ‘I hope he fails.’ To that person, I would say, ‘F— you. Why would you want that? So you can be right?'”