Carey Mulligan, Zoe Kazan, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey Cover MARIE CLAIRE’s Power Issue

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Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey exposed Harvey Weinstein. Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan play them in the new film SHE SAID. Together, they tell a vital story- about an article that not only sent shock waves through Hollywood, but also ignited in a new way the #MeToo movement.

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CAREY MULLIGAN
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ON BALANCING WORK AND MOTHERHOOD:
“I thought it was really brave of Megan to allow the film to portray that side of the story. That was something that we shared, because I had a similar experience when I had my daughter. I had to go and release a film and I was struggling enormously. I was in a really terrible place, but I knew, similar to how Megan did…she knew that she could put her work hat on, and that’s ultimately something that pulled her out. And it was the same for me. That was something that Megan and I talked about a lot. That was one of the things that really clicked for me when I read the script and one of the reasons I wanted to play the part.”

ON WHAT IT WAS LIKE BEING CASTED FOR THIS FILM:
“I remember I gave [the script] to my husband to read, and he finished it, and he said, ‘Oh my goodness, Zoe would be the best Jodi.’ And I was like, ‘I know, she would be amazing.’ We’re always trying to find stuff to do together. But I wasn’t the producer; it wasn’t my role to put anyone forward. I was just waiting to see who they would come up with. I remember hearing, ‘Oh, they really want to talk to Zoe.’ [But] I didn’t want her to feel pressure if she didn’t like the script. I didn’t want her to feel like, Oh, I have to do this because Carey’s doing it and she really wants me to do it. So I was trying to be gently encouraging but not [so much] that she would feel like she was letting me down if she didn’t want to.”

ON WHAT HAS CHANGED IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS AND WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
“There’s so much more to do and progress happens very slowly. We’re so bombarded at the moment with stories about violence against women all over the world. I do think it’s so hard to speak with any kind of authority about the experience of women. We live in a position of such complete privilege. But I do hope that the film…I think it’s a source of inspiration for young girls and women to have all of these incredible survivors in the film. Their bravery. These two women operating at the highest possible level professionally. Having these monuments to these women on screen.”

ZOE KAZAN
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ON WHAT IT WAS IT LIKE COMING TOGETHER FOR THIS PROJECT?
“It felt really good to be addressing this kind of content from a position of making a change, playing someone making a change, and not helpless. I think most women have had some experience of inappropriate contact, sexual harassment, inappropriate language. The rape statistics alone are so unbelievably high. I could be wrong, but it seems impossible to me that it isn’t…it must be most, if not everyone, who’s had some experience that has made her feel uncomfortable, shamed. So yeah, it’s impossible, I think, that I would come to this with a blank slate or no experience of my own, but I wasn’t really drawing on that. I was drawing on my feelings about justice and about the world that I want to create for my daughter. And the feeling of power that comes from using your intelligence to make a difference in the world.”

ON BALANCING WORK AND MOTHERHOOD:
“We started filming the exact same day that [my partner] Paul [Dano] started filming in Los Angeles. Our daughter had two parents who were working 17-hour days on opposite sides of the country. And the only way that we could make that work was that I had to have a really extraordinary nanny, who I am so indebted to. And my parents relocated for almost three months. My mother was a working mother who did not have someone doing that for her. And the reason that she feels so missionized, I think, to do this for us is to give me a different experience than she had. And so that was on my mind every day when I went to work. Those scenes of motherhood in the movie were actually some of the most important scenes to me. Everyone talks about work-life balance, but it’s also really hard to balance your priorities. I wanted to be the person who took my daughter to her first day of preschool, and I couldn’t do that because I felt like this job, this work was as important as that. And vice versa. I was just really relieved to read a script where that was represented and where I could put that part of myself in there. And I felt really bolstered by having [Megan and Jodi] and [their] experiences and Carey and her experiences. It made me feel not alone.”

ON WHAT IT WAS LIKE BEING CASTED FOR THIS FILM:
“Roles like this don’t usually come my way. I was not pursuing it. Carey and I have a close mutual friend who said, ‘Oh, Carey is signing on to do this project about this journalist.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s so exciting for her.’ I never thought, there are two journalists. And then a few weeks later my agents called and were like, ‘Prepare for this meeting.’”

ON WHAT HAS CHANGED IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS AND WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
“I think looking to the people who are already doing that activism and have their feet on the ground and are moving us forward. [That is,] at least, where I start because I am not that well equipped.”

[Photo Credit: Lauren Dukoff for Marie Claire Magazine]

• Carey Mulligan
• Editorials
• Jodi Kantor
• Lauren Dukoff
• Magazines
• Marie Claire
• Megan Twohey
• Zoe Kazan