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Starring: Zoe Kazan, Carey Mulligan, Patricia Clarkson, Andre Braugher, Samantha Morton, Tom Pelphrey, Adam Shapiro, Jennifer Ehle, Peter Friedman
OUR RATING: ★★★½
Story:
Drama directed by Maria Schrader. Based on a true story, She Said (2022) follows New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor (Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan), who together broke one of the most important stories in a generation, a story that help shatter decades of silence around the subject of sexual assault in Hollywood and altered American culture forever.
Our Favorite Quotes:
'It does damage to shout, and no one listens.' (She Said) Click To Tweet
Best Quotes
Rachel Crooks: [referring to Trump] What if he decides to sue? Would The New York Times be willing to help me?
Megan Twohey: News organizations can’t provide legal support. You’d be on your own.
Rachel Crooks: I went on the record, you published, and this is what happened.
Megan Twohey: Yeah, I’m so sorry.
Rachel Crooks: I was prepared, you know? But not for this. An envelope full of s**t?
Jodi Kantor: Are we talking solely corporate misuse of power?
Rebecca Corbett: No. We’re talking all workplaces where sexual harassment might happen. Also, let’s look for the enablers. Fox kept O’Reilly on for quite some time after our story broke.
Matt Purdy: And for decades before that.
Emily Steel: The network only ousted him when the advertisers jumped ship.
Rebecca Corbett: Let’s interrogate the whole system. Why is sexual harassment so pervasive, and so hard to address?
Jodi Kantor: [over phone] Hi. My name is Jodi Kantor. I’m an investigative reporter for The New York Times. We’re looking into sexual harassment in the workplace.
Jodi Kantor: [over phone] In your time as an assistant, were you aware of any instances in which Harvey Weinstein treated women inappropriately or crossed a line? Did Harvey cross a line?
Mary: [to Jodi, over phone] I don’t think people will want to talk.
Rose McGowan: [to Jodi, over phone] I’ve talked in the past, and nothing happened. I spoke at a political meeting recently, and The New York Times put it in the style section. It does damage to shout, and no one listens.
Rose McGowan: [to Jodi, over phone] I put myself on the line before, and it made no difference.
Megan Twohey: I just have this constant sense of dread.
Vadim ‘Jim’ Rutman: You’re tired. Your body’s exhausted.
Megan Twohey: I think I would know if it was just that.
Jodi Kantor: [referring to being assaulted by Weinstein, over phone] Did you report it?
Rose McGowan: Can you see the law taking my side on that?
Jodi Kantor: But you told other people?
Rose McGowan: I told a lot of people, and nobody did a thing. Nothing.
Rose McGowan: [to Jodi, over phone] You told me this was private. He’ll have spies watching you now, as we speak. I hope you know that.
Jodi Kantor: [over phone] I feel like there are a lot of women who have been through something with him. But they find it hard to talk. And those who do talk to me, don’t want to go on the record. In your previous stories, how did you persuade women to tell you what had happened to them?
Megan Twohey: Yeah. So it’s difficult. They’re terrified. A case I made was, “You know, I can’t change what happened to you in the past, but together, we may be able to use your experience to help protect other people.” The truth, basically. But, yeah. It’s hard to ask women to talk.
Megan Twohey: What is it exactly that we’re looking at here?
Jodi Kantor: We’re looking at extreme sexual harassment in the workplace. These young women walked into what they all had reason to believe were “business meetings” with a producer, an employer. They were hopeful. They were expecting a serious conversation about their work, or a possible project. Instead, they say he met them with threats and sexual demands. They claim assault and rape. If that can happen to Hollywood actresses, who else is it happening to?
'I think pretty much everyone and everything has a secret.' - Jodi Kantor (She Said) Click To Tweet
Investigator: [over phone] There are hundreds of sexual harassment cases at that agency.
Megan Twohey: This one was brought to you, and then it was closed very quickly.
Investigator: That’s not unusual.
Megan Twohey: It was filed against Miramax?
Investigator: What’s Miramax?
Megan Twohey: [referring to the ex-assistant] She was terrified, Jodi, but she wants to talk. She really does.
Talia: So, shops have secrets, but newspapers don’t?
Jodi Kantor: I think pretty much everyone and everything has a secret.
Talia: What’s yours?
Jodi Kantor: I will tell you one day. Do you have one?
Talia: Of course. Of course I have a secret.
Megan Twohey: You were the chief financial officer at Miramax. The women who received these settlements, they can’t speak out. They’ll be sued if they do. But if someone could speak freely about the payouts, that would be hugely helpful.
Mrs. Schmidt: What payouts, John?
Megan Twohey: Don’t you think that’s strange? That the commission is there to protect people, but its policy prohibits sharing the information needed to protect them?
'It was like he took my voice that day. Just when I was about to start finding it.' - Laura Madden (She Said) Click To Tweet
Jodi Kantor: [to Megan, as they’re wearing smiliar looking dresses] We’re like reporting twins.
Megan Twohey: The only way these women are going to go on the record…
Jodi Kantor: Is if they all jump together.
Jodi Kantor: You take the lead on this.
Megan Twohey: No, you do it. You’re less intimidating.
Jodi Kantor: You don’t find me intimidating?
Megan Twohey: I mean, no, it’s just the height thing.
Jodi Kantor: We’re from the New York Times. I believe you used to work for Harvey Weinstein.
Jodi Kantor: [to Megan, as the woman shuts the door in their face] Think she’ll go on the record?
'It's like an ocean of wrongdoing.' - Jodi Kantor (She Said) Click To Tweet
Jodi Kantor: It’s cash for silence, and it enables the perpetrators to continue.
Megan Twohey: And these clauses are standard practice. The women want to close the case. They need the money.
Jodi Kantor: They don’t want to be branded as liars or flirts. I mean, I’m sure it often seems like the only recourse.
Megan Twohey: And I imagine some women see these settlements as a confession of guilt. They think they’ve scored a victory when it’s actually a gag order.
Megan Twohey: We feel they’ll speak out if they’re not the only ones. Safety in numbers.
Rebecca Corbett: [to Megan and Jodi] We do not have a publishable story.
Dean Baquet: [to Jodi and Megan] You have to imagine that every call you make is being recorded. And you’re being followed. Don’t let Weinstein talk to you, unless it’s on the record.
Megan Twohey: I’d be interested in talking to him even off the record.
Dean Baquet: No, if Harvey has something to say, he needs to say it publicly. I’ve dealt with him before. It’s ugly.
Jodi Kantor: [over phone] Do you feel like you’re in physical danger at all?
Gwyneth Paltrow: I’ll keep people around me till he goes. It’s a shock. I know he’s watching me. He’s letting me know.
Jodi Kantor: He can’t do anything.
'You've got the story. Once we publish, everything else will come out.' - Matt Purdy (She Said) Click To Tweet
Miramax Executive: What makes me most angry is the silence. No one spoke out then, and no one is talking about it now. He built the silence, and people complied. He produced fear and intimidation. The only alternative, seemingly, was to quit and throw away everything you worked so hard for out the door. You were terrified you were going to be the next target, so people looked the other way.
Miramax Executive: I don’t want to be quoted, period.
Jodi Kantor: Understood.
Jodi Kantor: I wish I smoked or something. I’m staring at an actual brick wall, and all I can think is, “F***.”
Megan Twohey: That’s okay.
Zelda Perkins: You know, other people have tried to write this story, and he kills it every time.
Jodi Kantor: We’re aware of that. And we’re not going to let that happen to us.
Jodi Kantor: What was happening exactly?
Zelda Perkins: Bullying. Emotional abuse. I was just too young to understand it.
Zelda Perkins: He could destroy someone in seconds.
Jodi Kantor: Were you scared of him?
Zelda Perkins: Yes. We all were.
Zelda Perkins: We weren’t allowed to talk to our family, or a doctor. So finally we signed. They gave us some money. And I felt completely broken.
Trailer: