Sarah Silverman has mixed feelings about her friend and fellow comedian Louis C.K.
In a new interview with GQ, Silverman said she doesn’t have a “clear perspective” on how she feels after C.K. was accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women.
“Life is complicated. Love is even more complicated. But you can’t not do it,” she said. “I don’t have some definitive sound bite or nutshell of how I feel about it, even to myself. But I’m also okay with that.”
Silverman, 47, said she still talks to C.K. and will continue to support her “brother.”
“He’s my brother, so it’s hard,” she said. “I may not have a very clear perspective on it, but I’m trying to.”
In a New York Times article published in November, four female comedians claimed that C.K. had masturbated in front of them, while a fifth claimed he masturbated while speaking with her on the phone. The comedian responded with a lengthy statement in which he admitted that “these stories are true.”
He added, “The hardest regret to live with is what you’ve done to hurt someone else. And I can hardly wrap my head around the scope of hurt I brought on them … I have spent my long and lucky career talking and saying anything I want. I will now step back and take a long time to listen.”
Silverman also sounded off on an allegation against Aziz Ansari, saying she hopes he learns from what happened.
“I was just like, ‘Gross, I don’t wanna know that about Aziz!’ ” she said. “Hopefully he’s dealing with things, looking inward, and will blossom from it.”
In January, an anonymous woman who went on a date with Ansari, 35, accused him of sexual behavior that she classified as assault but he called consensual in a controversial article published on Babe.net.
The woman recounted her allegations under the pseudonym “Grace.” She alleged that Ansari behaved coercively at his apartment following a date and that several sexual acts occurred though she was “physically giving off cues that wasn’t interested.”
In response to the allegation, Ansari issued a statement at the time acknowledging they went on a date and ended up engaging in sexual activity afterward, which he said, “by all indications was completely consensual.”
“The next day, I got a text from her saying that although ‘it may have seemed okay,’ upon further reflection, she felt uncomfortable,” he continued. “It was true that everything did seem okay to me, so when I heard that it was not the case for her, I was surprised and concerned. I took her words to heart and responded privately after taking the time to process what she had said.”
“I continue to support the movement that is happening in our culture,” he added. “It is necessary and long overdue.”