The dangerously inspiring true-to-life journey of investigative reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey about the fall of one of Hollywood’s most powerful figures is immortalized for the big screen in Universal Pictures’ “She Said” that will open in Philippine cinemas on November 23.
An investigation that ignited a global movement – on Oct. 5, 2017, New York Times investigative reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey broke a page-one story that shook the entertainment industry and reverberated throughout the country: “Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades.” Two-time Academy Award® nominee Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman, An Education) and Emmy nominee Zoe Kazan (The Plot Against America, 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 shattered decades of silence around the subject of sexual assault in Hollywood and impelled a shift in American culture that continues to this day.
Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein had long reigned as one of the movie industry’s most powerful figures. The winner of six best picture Oscars® and the producer of such films as Sex, Lies and Videotape, Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting, Weinstein was a man whose tremendous clout could easily make or break careers, and for years, Kantor and Twohey reported, he allegedly used that clout to harass and coerce women into sexual encounters.
In 3,321 carefully researched words, the journalists detailed previously undisclosed allegations of wrongdoing stretching back three decades. Their reporting was thoroughly documented through interviews with Weinstein’s current and former employees and film industry workers, as well as legal records, emails and internal documents from the businesses that the larger-than-life executive had run, Miramax and the Weinstein Company, both long-dominant brands in Hollywood. Their findings were unimpeachable. Through dogged perseverance and the cooperation of many courageous survivors and other brave sources, they had at last revealed the truth.
A testament to the incalculable importance of investigative journalism, “She Said” details the journey of reporters and editors engaged in the unrelenting pursuit of the truth and highlights the courage of survivors and witnesses who chose to come forward to stop an accused serial predator from committing further harm. Together, their commitment and fortitude sparked a global conversation, helped propel the #MeToo movement, and fueled a reckoning of the system that had enabled him.
At its heart, She Said is an inspiring true story about people, many of them women, many of them mothers, who summoned the courage to speak out and seek justice, not just for themselves but for those in the future, both in the U.S. and around the globe. The film is a compelling, moving reminder of the power of individual people, armed with determination and grit, to, together, change the world.
A Universal Pictures feature film, “She Said” will open in local cinemas on November 23.
