‘She Said’ premieres in New York

LOS ANGELES

Five years after a pair of exposes revealed Harvey Weinstein’s long trail of sexual abuse of women, “She Said,” a film that dramatizes the dogged fight to uncover years of allegations against the movie mogul, premiered on Oct. 13 at the New York Film Festival.

The film stars Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan as New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, who helped uncover the many allegations against Weinstein. When news of their impending report was first leaked by Variety, Weinstein at the time commented: “The story sounds so good, I want to buy the movie rights.”

Instead, the movie that would become “She Said” was adapted from Twohey and Kantor’s 2019 book about the investigation. It unspooled on Oct. 13 at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, with numerous women who came forward to tell their story in attendance, including Ashley Judd. Weinstein, meanwhile, is currently being tried in Los Angeles for 11 counts of rape and sexual assault. He has pled not guilty.

The 70-year-old Weinstein is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2020 for committing a criminal sexual act and third-degree rape.

One of the loudest of the film’s numerous standing ovations was for Judd, whose on-the-record account led The Times’ first report and whose bravery emboldened many others to speak out. Other women who came forward were also in the audience. Judd plays herself in the film.

“I just want to remember when I was speaking to my mother about all this, she said, `Oh, you go get ‘em, honey,” Judd said in an on-stage conversation following the film, recalling that her father was with her after her 1996 meeting with Weinstein at the Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel. “When I came down from the hotel room, he knew something devastating had just happened to me by the look on my face.”

“It was very validating that someone finally wanted to listen and do something about it,” Judd added. “The film was the next step in that.”

That “She Said” was premiering in New York at a festival Weinstein once frequented made the evening particularly poignant. Eugene Hernandez, executive director of the festival, noted that “it’s a room Harvey Weinstein has been in.”