DirectorMaria Schrader’s upcoming film,She Said, maps out the investigation led by New York Times journalists,Megan Twohey(Carey Mulligan) andJodi Kantor(Zoe Kazan), that exposed the sexual abuse of numerous women by former film producerHarvey Weinstein. Inspired by the tell-all account in the reporters' book of the same name,She Saidhighlights the courageous women who came forward to give their testimonies, which contributed to launching the #MeToo movement and also putting Weinstein behind bars.
In her interview with Collider’sPerri Nemiroff, Schrader discussesShe Said’s focus on the brave women who came forward and how she hopes the film will inspire audiences to continue having those conversations. The director also delves into what she learned about the genre of investigative journalism in movies, why she felt she was the right person to put this script to screen, and highlights a couple of smaller moments that she felt were important to include in the finished film.
Check out the full conversation in the video at the top of this article or in the transcript below.
PERRI NEMIROFF: I wanted to start with the line, “It was like he took my voice that day, just when I was about to start finding it.” Both times I’ve seen the film, that line absolutely devastated me, so to highlight some of the good out there, can you name someone that you encountered early on in your career who made you feel seen and supported in the best possible way so that you could take a positive step forward when you were first starting out in this industry?
MARIA SCHRADER: Yes, I was very lucky to have met people who made me feel respected and met with curiosity and openness and gender equality. I also had different experiences though. I think we all did. We all had good and bad experiences.
Having had those experiences and overcome them, is there anything you now strive to do for up-and-coming filmmakers so that they have the support that you didn’t have as much of as you would have liked when you were first beginning your career?
SCHRADER: When I first began my career I had a very uncomfortable time of rehearsals with a colleague, a much older colleague, and now doingShe Saidmade me think back [about] how privileged I was because I never experienced abuse in my childhood. I had a healthy childhood. I didn’t feel incredibly dependent on that job. I was surrounded by people who made me feel safe and shared what had happened and helped me get a lawyer. And that is very, very privileged. And I truly hope that bringing this story to the screen and listening to these accounts of the very, very brave women, and some of them really not being in the public eye but former ex-assistants, being so happy to maybe have a future in that workplace and then so brutally have been disrupted from it courageously telling their story. I really hope that this inspires other people to also have a conversation and share their stories and feel uplifted by it and encouraged, because this place of isolation is, I think, the worst, and it still makes me very emotional if I think of where Zelda Perkins or Laura Madden have been.
Based on the audience response at the two screenings I was at, I have a very, very good feeling this film will have the intended effect.
I’ve grown a little obsessed with this Joe Wright quote someone shared with me recently about how a director should only take scripts that they feel they have a secret about. You’ve got the incredible reporting here, you’ve got the real people, and you’re working with a great script, but what was yourShe Saidsecret that gave you the confidence that if you were at the helm of this film, you would be able to bring it to screen in a way that was uniquely your own?
SCHRADER: I think my own radar is my instinctive reactions to what I read, what I then see in front of my eyes, which is fed also by personal experiences. I think the fact that I was working most of my life as an actor then turned into directing. The emotional response I had to so many scenes just gave me the confidence to take it on because it’s something to take on, right? It’s a project like no other because [there’s] so much reality in there. It’s a true story and not just a true story, but a true story which had such an impact, and maybe it’s something very specific that everyone knows the story, so everyone has his own projection of what this movie has to be. And I think with the help of so many fantastic collaborators, I felt very secure and self-confident about the decisions we had to make, how to film it, what to film, what not to film, and the general tonality and reality about it.
Showing news-gathering on screen in a dynamic and tension-building manner can be a very, very difficult thing to do. What techniques or tips did you come up with while makingShe Saidthat you might give to another filmmaker about to tackle their first film about investigative journalism?
SCHRADER: Well, first of all, we have to acknowledge this is a genre, right? Journalists on the hunt for the truth, we can name a lot of titles, suspenseful films about journalism. And I do think this one also serves that aspect and, I think, it is exciting the more specific it gets. I was very happy to learn all about the details, and I think it’s a director’s responsibility to, first of all, create emotional connections to the protagonists and to really make the audience understand why this phone call, this particular moment is so very important for them and to stay connected even though it’s [a lot of] groundwork, which we see. But I find it always very interesting to learn the specifics about other people’s workplace and, of course, we wanted to portray this particular workplace with accuracy and truth.
Was there any tiny detail in the process of getting this story out there that maybe was deemed too small and not worthy of the final feature film, but it was important to you to make sure it was represented on screen?
SCHRADER: Yeah, there were several moments we created through the making [of the film]. So for instance, the humor part with Ron and Jodi, this little humoresque understanding, that was something [that] the actors very much brought. Another moment that I truly wanted to see [was] Zelda coming back from her years in Guatemala, coming back and getting out of the car and looking around herself in London and being back. That was also a moment which was important to me, and we just stole that shot and made it happen.
