Five years have passed since the hashtag #MeToo went viral, calling on survivors of sexual assault to join together in solidarity and tell their stories.
With 200,000 uses of the hashtag on that first day alone in October 2017, this call to action amplified women’s voices and stories, changing the way we frame and discuss experiences of sexual harassment, and calling into question the structures that prevent perpetrators from being held to account.
This watershed moment was made possible by the work of two women, New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. Their reporting and uncovering of movie mogul, Harvey Weinstein's - then the most powerful man in Hollywood - pervasive abuses of power and countless accusations of sexual harassment and rape triggered a rallying cry against sexual abuse, highlighting the magnitude to which Hollywood, and other industries, have allowed it to persist.
The Surrey-born actor stars as Kate Hudson’s character’s assistant in the Netflix murder-mystery.
In 2019, Kantor and Twohey released a book, She Said, documenting the story behind their investigation – their heartbreaking interviews with Weinstein’s victims, their discovery of the different ways his actions had destroyed their lives and careers and finally their painstaking efforts at persuading victims to go on the record and hold their abuser to account.
This incredible testament to female solidarity and challenging the status quo has been given the movie treatment, with Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan playing Twohey and Kantor respectively.
We see the two journalists enter a murky world of legal cover-ups, heartbreaking confessions and refusals by victims to go on the record, against a backdrop of intimidation as rumours begin to circulate of what they’re trying to uncover. It’s a fight under the darkest of circumstances, but it’s one that is an honour to witness, with the fierce friendship between the two reporters at the centre of it all.
Throughout the film, the world of journalism is represented as it is – an intense mixture of mundanity from research, phone calls, note taking and staring at a computer screen, along with cathartic moments of discovery, conversations with incredible people and the uncovering of important stories.
She Said's take on the media world isn’t one of glamour or teenage pipe dreams. A far departure from the depictions made by TV show The Bold Type and movie classics How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days and 13 Going On 30, it’s portrayed as a more gritty existence of persistence, with incredible opportunities to affect change, which is exactly what journalism should be at its core.
It also highlights – without too much Hollywood-style sugar coating – one of the cruellest truths of the Weinstein investigation. That victims, who had already lost so much, were made to choose between their careers, their livelihoods and speaking out about the horrific abuse they had endured.
“Screaming may, to some degree, help relieve your stress.”
Needless to say, a Hollywood blockbuster about the systemic issues of sexual harassment, manipulation and abuse within Hollywood itself is a difficult, complicated but important story to tell right.
Director Maria Schrader (who also helmed Netflix’s Unorthodox) navigates this challenge beautifully, particularly when it comes to how the survivor’s stories are told and the nuances of the journalistic investigation. She also has a stellar cast to back up her efforts.
Carey Mulligan’s take on Megan Twohey is compelling and complex – spikey, smart, funny – and a woman with her own struggles. Alongside the investigation, we see Megan grapple with postnatal depression, death threats due to the stories she’s reporting on and truly visceral anger when she encounters sexual harassment herself in a bar. In other words, we see her live the ugliness that comes with being a modern woman.
Instagram content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
This authenticity is absolutely integral in translating the story of She Said – and the fight it represents – into the daily lives and anger of every cinemagoer, every ally and every survivor who goes to see the film.
It was important to Kantor and Twohey that this authenticity was applied to the portrayal of their onscreen characters, that their lives weren’t just all about the investigation. Both were dealing with the challenges of motherhood at the time, and the film is all the better for showing the multi-faceted nature of their lives as working women.
“The kids are distracting from the work but also fuelling it,” Kantor explained in an interview, expressing her gratitude that her life was portrayed accurately as it was at that time. “It’s pretty rare to see a combination of work and parenting portrayed realistically on screen, and I’m so grateful for the dignity and sensitivity that Zoe [Kazan] brought to all of it.”
What's new?
Schrader’s choice to not show – or recreate – flashbacks or scenes of Weinstein’s crimes as the survivor’s stories begin to unfold is one that honours the victims’ privacy and adds to the truly devastating impact of the accounts that are told. Haunting recordings of the encounters are played over panning footage of a hotel room – the bed, the bathroom, the corridor – letting the true horror of Weinstein’s behaviour speak for itself.
That said, there are also standout performances of survivors' stories. Ashley Judd plays herself – the only survivor who opted to do so – in an array of moving scenes where Kantor hears her story and appeals to her to come forward.
The Walking Dead’s Samantha Morton is absolutely incredible as Weinstein's former PA, Zelda Perkins, who bore witness to his crimes. In the middle of a coffee shop, Morton unleashes a completely devastating account of the injustice of not only Weinstein’s actions, but the wider system that protects him. “This is about the system protecting abusers,” she says, her rage palpable, but her points clear and calm.
Jennifer Ehle also delivers an incredible performance as survivor Laura Madden, whose story opens and closes the film. She must decide whether to go on the record while – like so many other women – contending with other issues in her present life. Her visceral description of the shame that surrounds the experience of sexual assault, and its aftermath, is one that will stay with you long after the credits roll.
The thread that ties She Said together as a film is the same one that ran through Twohey and Kantor’s investigation – solidarity amongst women, allies and survivors. Schrader’s directorial work is bolstered by Mulligan and Kazan – whose chemistry is only strengthened by their close friendship in real life – and the incredible women who gave a voice to those who had suffered at Weinstein’s hands.
Mulligan has commented in interviews about the impact the investigation has had on both Hollywood. She has described the welcome presence of intimacy co-ordinators on set, outlining how scripts are written differently to represent all that a woman is, not just her body.
There is still definitely work to do, though – if She Said teaches us anything, it's the pervasiveness of violence against women, and the systems that allow it to continue. However, the stories at its core also undeniably demonstrates how far we’ve come, the power of solidarity, and the impact that speaking out can have when it comes to affecting change.
She Said is on at cinemas nationwide on Friday November 25th.
