A new film dramatises the New York Times investigation that brought down Harvey Weinstein. Its stars discuss how the industry is changing
On 5 October 2017 the New York Times published an investigation that would change the world. It cited eight women, “typically in their early or middle 20s … and hoping to get a toehold in the film industry”, who had been lured to a hotel room by the producer Harvey Weinstein, purportedly for work reasons, only to find him “nearly or fully naked in front of them”. The original report by journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey quoted just one celebrity: the actor Ashley Judd. But within a week Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Rosanna Arquette had stepped up, and the wheels began to spin on what would become the runaway #MeToo movement.
Four years on, at the tailend of the Covid pandemic, the actors Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan found themselves trying to reconstruct the moment in the deserted New York Times offices: “It was like being in a room where everyone had been raptured or something, with half-eaten candy bars and people’s shoes under the desk,” says Kazan. “The newsroom was completely empty, and had been for a year and a half. All the newspapers were dated 13 March 2020, or something. It was very eerie. And I was sending videos to Jodi, walking around our set being like, ‘Here’s your newsroom, it misses you.’”
