recalls her research for playingAt Deadline’s Contenders Film: New York event, Kazan described feeling “in communion” with Kantor, one-half of the duo who broke the Harvey Weinstein story. “Our kids went to the same preschool. We’re taking the same subway to work. The New York Times building is down the street from all the theaters I’ve worked at,” she said. “I felt like, ‘Oh, I know Jodi — we wear the same backpack to work!’ There’s some sense in which, she’s a Brooklyn mom, I’m a Brooklyn mom.
Deadline film writer Valerie Complex, who moderated the Contenders session, asked Kazan what her response is to anyone who might wonder if the film is coming “too soon” after the Weinstein revelations in 2017. “It’s a really valid question,” Kazan said. “For me, it has to do with, it’s not like this problem is solved.
As for the #MeToo movement, for which Weinstein has been a symbol, Kazan said society and industry have “made strides” over the past five years, but “there’s so much farther for us to go. … We’re still living under the same social structures we were then. The most powerful part of the film to me is that it shows how people who are not coming from a super-powerful position can make a difference.”
Asked about her initial response to the Weinstein revelations in 2017, Kazan said she remembered thinking, “I hope this makes a difference.” Weinstein seemed like an “impenetrable,” Zeus-like presence presiding over Miramax and making careers and enemies in equal measure.