Mila Kunis, Susan Sarandon talk Hollywood sexual harassment

Hollywood junkets - gatherings at posh hotels where entertainment reporters lob marshmallow questions at smiling celebrities promoting their movies - aren't known for addressing hard-hitting issues.

But on Tuesday actresses Mila Kunis and Susan Sarandon voiced their thoughts and experiences at Chicago's Peninsula Hotel about Harvey Weinstein and sexual harassment in show business. They were in town to promote their upcoming comedy "A Bad Mom's Christmas," which hits theaters Nov. 1.

Sarandon and Kunis joined fellow cast members Cheryl Hines, Westchester native Kathryn Hahn and Kristen Bell for round-table news conferences, even though the table technically formed a rectangle.

So, what does Kunis, who emigrated to America from Ukraine at age 7, think about the culture's new awareness of harassment?

"Hmmm. I'm trying to think of how to answer this without getting into trouble," Kunis said. "I really think it's great that we have an open line of dialogue. It's great that we are living in a world where we have the right to have an opinion, where we can voice our opinion and we're not going to be stoned, or shamed, for acts that were done against our will."

"Amen!" Hahn said. "That's a very good answer!"

"But it's the truth," Kunis said. "It doesn't matter what I think. I'm not that woman. But I'm really happy that I'm living in a world and in a country where, physically speaking, no one is hanging her, beating her or throwing rocks at her for speaking up."

Sarandon said that everyone has had a pass made at him or her. A director threw one at her in a motel room in the middle of Texas on a location shoot. She said "no."

"I think what people aren't talking about is the economic disparity that makes that situation problematic," Sarandon said. "If you're an actress who's in the position to produce, to green-light a project, to write a project, to direct a project, then you have other options.

"When you're a 20-year-old actress starting out and this guy holds the key to the kingdom, even if you're trying to get out of it, you're trying to think of a way not to humiliate him because he'll write you off."

Sarandon has worked with Weinstein, once the master of the indie movie universe at the powerful Weinstein Co. founded by him and his brother Bob Weinstein.

"I saw him bully people. But not sexually," Sarandon said. "So, no, I didn't have any firsthand information about that."

But she did witness Harvey Weinstein's power to buy up several small films, then not release them for whatever reasons he had.

Sarandon, an outspoken progressive activist, said the recent spike in harassment victims coming forward to tell their stories has changed the social discourse.

"It's a little more confusing when you're in an industry that sells sex," she said. "They're looking at how many followers you have before they cast models, before they cast actors now. That is your currency. How do you not seem hypocritical when this is why you're being hired?"