A film about Harvey Weinstein‘s decades-long sexual misconduct and the people who exposed it is finally getting a film five years later. She Said, directed by Maria Schrader and starring Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan as New York Times journalists Megan Twohey and Jodi Cantor, who broke the story that sparked the #MeToo movement.
Mulligan, who starred and was nominated for an Academy Award for her work in Promising Young Woman, shared her thoughts with The Hollywood Reporter on playing Twohey, who reached out to victims of Weinstein and asked them to share their story at significant personal risk:
“I’m so interested in the psyche of someone who can ring someone up in the middle of the day and ask them the worst thing that’s ever happened to them, that they can gain that person’s trust and then relay that to the world. I’m just not made of that.”
The film also stars Ashley Judd and Sarah Ann Masse, survivors of Weinstein’s sexual assault. Masse describes how starring in the movie has helped her process and heal from the ordeal:
“I had lost a lot of time in my career because of what Harvey did to me; I faced direct retaliation these past five years and it’s been slower.” Masse continues, “When I walked on set I immediately felt like I was at home. It was my first big studio feature, and then today here I am at the Chinese Theatre at the premiere of this huge film that I’m in, and it’s really healing. It’s poetic justice; it feels like the start to the life I was always supposed to have and I’m just excited at the new opportunities that are going to come.”
The film’s release coincides with Weinstein’s continuing legal troubles. Weinstein has been convicted of third-degree rape and criminal sexual assault in the first degree. In addition, Weinstein is currently on trial for eleven counts of rape, forcible oral copulation, and sexual battery.
She Said releases November 18, 2022.