Director Maria Schrader on Telling a Critically Important, Impactful Story in ‘She Said’

When I spoke with director Maria Schrader (Emmy winner for 2020’s Unorthodox), she’d just recovered from a long night out. Her latest film, She Said, held its home turf premiere in Berlin the previous evening. To celebrate, Schrader and friends celebrated the well-received screening with dancing and drinks in the Berlin nightlife. Then, the party migrated home with Schrader, final guests leaving at 7am.

After a continent-jumping tour for the acclaimed film, Schrader and team deserved the night off. After all, She Said covers some intensely emotional terrain as it conveys the struggle of two journalists, Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) and Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan), as they work to expose the decades-long pattern of sexual abuse by Harvey Weinstein, the then hugely influential Hollywood producer. Schrader deftly guides her cast through the tricky terrain, building an emotionally resonant and fiercely intelligent film that honors not only the intrepid journalists but, most importantly, the dozens of women who suffered at Weinstein’s hands.

So you’ll forgive Schrader if she has a fun night once in a while. She’s more than earned it.

“I spent so much time outside of Berlin making this movie. I also spent the last three months of the summer in New York again to finish it,” Schrader remarked. “Of course, it was very highly anticipated here too, and it was a great opportunity to see all these people I haven’t seen for so long and to reconnect. It was really beautiful.”

Schrader’s interest in the material sparked after the Twohey and Kantor broke the original story back in 2017. The aftermath started several conversations and the #MeToo movement which had reverberations across the world. Eventually, Schrader would be approached by producer Dede Gardner and would read Twohey and Kantor’s book. The opportunity to tell a story, to make a film, with two female protagonists also proved irresistible to the director.

She hadn’t seen a true representation like this within film of two women building trust in one another and of women sharing their stories, their lived experiences, to such great effect. To build as accurate a representation of the events as possible, Schrader worked with Twohey and Kantor to ensure authenticity.

“I don’t know how many questions I asked Jodi and Megan about conference rooms, about bigger things, about different energies in the newsroom and in the investigation bullpen. Over the growth of the team, I believe Jodi and Megan gained trust more and more. They would invite us to their homes and tell us about the details of their private lives during the time of the investigation,” Schrader shared. “The fact that we wanted to make a movie and have them as our protagonists and also integrate other parts which they consciously left out of their report made sense and was meaningful to them. It was a great collaboration.”

One of the more unique aspects of She Said is that it incorporates Kantor and Twohey’s personal lives into the narrative. While She Said still follows in the footsteps of All the President’s Men or Spotlight, it stands on its own as a documentation of all aspects of a female journalist’s life. Schrader considered a full picture of the two women to combine both their fierce professionalism with their relatability. They could not emerge as larger-than-life heroes, but they were constantly reminded of the importance of their work, the impact that their words would have on not only Weinstein’s victims but also likely passing down to their own daughters’ futures.

In addition to the characters of Twohey and Kantor, the film includes a painful look into the lives and on-going torment of Weinstein’s victims. Those dozens of women are mostly represented in the film by three actresses: Jennifer Ehle, Samantha Morton, and true-life Weinstein survivor Ashley Judd. Ehle and Morton represented real-life victims as well. While Morton met directly with her character (Zelda Perkins), Ehle opted out of speaking with Laura Madden. Two different approaches. Two incredibly powerful performances.

Yet, one of the most impactful performances within She Said came from Ashley Judd, who unexpectedly plays herself within the film (Gwyneth Paltrow voices herself on a phone call). Schrader said that Judd often speaks about how validating and freeing it was to play herself in the film.

Working with actors playing themselves can be tricky, but Schrader gave Judd the freedom to explore and modulate her performance on her own.

“She decided how to perform actually, how to tell her own story. It’s kind of a stage which I gave to her. I said, ‘This is the way I’d like to film it, and here I’d like to set up the camera. Why don’t I just watch and let you decide how to do it?’ But she’s a wonderful actor, and she was at peace with doing this. So it turned out to be a wonderful, easy shooting day. She started to dialogue, and we tried different approaches. It was just wonderful.”

She Said is now available on video on demand.