Harvey Weinstein’s life story would make a great movie. To be exact, a tragedy.
He was an Oscar-winning film producer who had control over the industry. But he also used his power to punish female stars. He’s sitting in jail now for his crimes, but the investigative report that sealed his downfall will soon be a major motion picture.
She spoke. recalls The New York Times reporters whose expose ended Weinstein’s reign of terror.
Here’s the official description from Annapurna Pictures:
Two-time Academy Award® nominee Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman, An Education) and Zoe Kazan (The Plot Against America limited series, The Big Sick) star as New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, who together broke one of the most important stories in a generation— a story that helped propel the #Metoo movement, shattered decades of silence around the subject of sexual assault in Hollywood and altered American culture forever.
There’s plenty to unpack here.
Twohey, Kantor and their heroic efforts deserve an entire film. Their hard work didn’t just bring Weinstein to justice. It set in motion the flawed but explosive #MeToo movement which caught other predators before they could hurt more women.
A few journalists were aware of the Weinstein story, but they didn’t pursue it as aggressively as it needed to be. Journalist Kim Masters suspected the truth but shied away for a variety of reasons, some of which were valid.
Weinstein will fight back if he is pressed about his actions. Hard. The legal team was there to cause panic in the reporters.
She spoke. has plenty of powerful material to draw upon, but what else will make it to the screen? Will Hollywood have the nerve to implicate itself in Weinstein’s crimes?
How many people whispered, or even shouted, “they knew” when Weinstein’s crimes came to light?
It’s unfair to expect a single film to capture a story with so many layers. It’s still incumbent on a Hollywood production to show the industry’s role in the producer’s crimes.
They understood.
One of the film’s producers should raise some eyebrows.
Brad Pitt isn’t just an Oscar-winning actor. He was acutely aware of Weinstein’s predatory behavior. He even threatened to rough Weinstein up after the producer made an advance on Pitt’s then-girlfriend, Gwyneth Paltrow.
Pitt didn’t address the subject. The actor wasn’t the superstar he’d eventually become, and he may not have known Weinstein’s pattern of sexual abuse at the time.
Is it possible that Pitt learned more in the course of time. What did others know or hear that they ought to tell Weinstein before he struck again?
Quentin Tarantino knew, no doubt.
The Oscar-winning director dated Mira Sorvino, who rebuffed Weinstein’s crude advances and paid a serious price for it. She says he torpedoed her career, something director Peter Jackson confirmed.
Sorvino also told not just Tarantino about it but others, too.
“I told everyone I knew. No one said, ‘Hey, this is sexual harassment. Go to authorities. There is a case. It’s best to go to police. Maybe it’s assault.’ No one said anything like that … I didn’t really understand the law and I didn’t think I was important enough to make a big enough deal over, I just kind of tried to put it to the side and keep working and go on about my life. And I think a lot of people felt that way.”
Tarantino worked also with Uma Thurman, another Weinstein victim. Tarantino continued to work with Weinstein right up until his death. The New York Times’ expose that sealed his professional fate.
Harvey Weinstein’s entire story can be told in one movie. She spoke. deserves to exist on its own without carrying the scandal’s full weight. And let’s hope the film doesn’t repeatedly stop cold to deliver lectures on the patriarchy.
They deserve more than this, as does the film.
If the drama doesn’t at least touch on the corrosive system that let Weinstein thrive, though, it’ll do his victims an injustice.
[Cross-posted from Hollywood in Toto.]
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