Actors Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan star as the award-winning journalists who broke the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal in the new film "She Said," which premiered at the London Film Festival on Friday.
As an ode to investigative journalism and the bravery of the women who spoke out against the former entertainment mogul, the movie is based on the 2019 book of the same name about the New York Times investigation into claims of sexual misconduct by Weinstein, then one of the most powerful producers in Hollywood. Mulligan and Kazan play Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, who wrote the book and won Pulitzer Prizes for their reporting.
On Oct. 5, 2017, The New York Times published a bombshell article by Kantor and Twohey, who had spent months developing it. It triggered the undoing of the once untouchable Hollywood producer, as the #MeToo movement prompted scores of women to speak out against sexual violence and sexism in the workplace, its impact reaching far beyond the world of cinema.
"The film spoke to me as being just full of women being heroic, from the survivors, the witnesses to everyone at The Times who sort of made this happen," Mulligan told Reuters on the red carpet.
Some of Weinstein's accusers such as his former assistant Zelda Perkins and her colleague Rowena Chiu appeared at the premiere alongside the movie's stars. Chiu said seeing her story on the big screen felt "confusing."
"There's a whole mix of emotions, you feel sad about it, you feel angry about it, you feel sort of amazed that there are so many people taking an interest in it and it's become such a big phenomenon," she said. "So all these things sort of come at once – so you feel definitely a clash of emotions."
But five years after his career ended in disgrace it was Ashley Judd, the actor and activist who was one of the first figures to publicly accuse Weinstein of sexual harassment, who received a standing ovation at Manhattan's Lincoln Center. In the film by German director Maria Schrader, Judd plays herself: an actor who rejects the sexual advances of a powerful producer and pays the price over the course of her career, before years later coming out against him.
"It's so important to be in our truth and to have our righteousness to our story," Judd said during a panel at the film's screening in New York, paying tribute to her "sisters" who were also victims of Weinstein.
After the Times story broke, some 100 women came forward with accusations of sexual misconduct by Weinstein. The reporting fueled the #MeToo movement, with women around the world calling out sexual harassment. Denying the allegations, Weinstein has been sentenced to 23 years in prison in New York, as he stands trial on 11 more charges in Los Angeles. He is appealing the verdict. Weinstein is currently on trial in California on additional charges of sexual misconduct and has pleaded not guilty.
The #MeToo movement was once again recently on the world's agenda with the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial.