This 2010 interview with Sofia Vergara and Gordon Ramsay is uncomfortable to watch in the #MeToo era

With #MeToo sending shock waves through contemporary culture and spawning the Time’s Up movement, the tectonic plates of power in the entertainment business are slowly starting to shift.

While there is still a huge way to go in terms of ensuring women are equally paid, respected and can navigate their careers safely, there’s a greater awareness of these issues in our culture.

This was made apparent when a 2010 interview between Gordon Ramsay and Sofia Vergara resurfaced online.

During the interview, conducted by Jay Leno, the TV chef repeatedly talked over Vergara and mocked her accent. He then made several jokes tinged with sexual innuendo and even touched the actresses upper leg without her consent. He even sat on her chair next to her, again, without asking.

Vergara appeared uncomfortable throughout but tried her best to laugh along.

At the time US publication Entertainment Weekly asked: “Did Gordon Ramsay bug you, too?” - with the article telling the chef to “back off with the lewdness”. Yet the interview didn’t receive nearly as much attention then as it is doing now.

After receiving almost 23,000 retweets on Twitter this week, people were not impressed.

The strong reaction to this video and its obvious inappropriateness proves that, nine years later, things might finally be starting to change. In 2016, Vergara said that she is used to being objectified, but hopefully one day soon no woman will have to be treated like that or have to learn to brush off such awkward behaviour.

indy100 has contacted Gordon Ramsay for comment.