Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston says there 'could be way back' for Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey

Actor Bryan Cranston has said there is a way back for Hollywood figures accused of sexual harassment like Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey but that it would take "tremendous contrition on their part".

In an interview with the BBC on Monday (13 November), Cranston said it was good that society is now "hypersensitive" to "sexual predator behaviour", adding that it's "not a Hollywood problem, its a societal problem" and suggested people should "think back on our behaviour".

After a report asked whether there is a way back for people like Weinsten and Spacey, Cranston said "it would take time".

"It would take a society to forgive them and it would take tremendous contrition on their part - and a knowingness that they have a deeply rooted psychological and emotional problem and it takes years to mend that," the Breaking Bad star said.

"If they were to show us that they put the work in and are 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."

The answer is different to the one given by Cranston just a few days earlier when he told BBC's Newsbeat how Spacey is a "phenomenal actor, but he's not a very good person" and that he thought Spacey's career "is over".

Cranston said that were those accused to take those steps "it would be up to us to determine, case by case whether or not this person deserves a second chance" and said he thought "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 respect for others. Maybe it's possible."