‘The Assistant’ Examines The Toxic Workplace Culture That Protected Harvey Weinstein – HuffPost

PARK CITY, Utah Julia Garner and Kitty Green were tired but giddy when I walked into their room at Marriotts Summit Watch on Sunday afternoon. They hopped up and greeted me before raving about meetingGlenn Close on Park Citys Main Street during their hectic press day at the Sundance Film Festival, which would host a screening of their somber, quiet film The Assistant that evening. They were eager for audiences to see it, but also surely overwhelmed by the weight of responsibility that comes with producing one of the first narrative films to result from the Me Too movement.

The Assistant, in limited theaters Friday, details a day in the life of a production companys low-level employee, Jane (Emmy winner Garner), as she witnesses firsthand the predatory behavior of a top executive, modeled after Harvey Weinstein. Although her boss never appears on screen, his unsavory aura lingers as Jane answers phone calls, organizes work trips, takes lunch orders, prints headshots and cleans stains off his office couch. When hes angry with her, Jane is coached by the higher-ranking male assistants on how to apologize in order to keep her job. When she gets a call from his concerned wife, Jane calmly lies about his whereabouts.

And when she feels uncomfortable with the hiring of a beautiful young assistant (Kristine Froseth), Janes pursuit to report misconduct is cut off by the human resources department.Shes on the fast track to becoming a film producer herself, an HR executive played by Matthew Macfadyen (Succession), tells her, so why are you in here trying to throw it all away with this bullshit?

Bleecker StreetJulia Garner in "The Assistant."

Green, an award-winning Australian filmmaker whose work includes Ukraine Is Not a Brothel (2013) and Casting JonBenet (2017), said her work as a documentarian helped her when it came to interviewing assistants and executives at various studios and agencies, including Miramax and The Weinstein Co., for the film. Her goal?To explore some really concrete problems of the larger systemic rot.

Green and Garner talk to HuffPost about the films approach, their own upsetting experiences in the entertainment business and how Janes story opens up a larger conversation on the abuse of power in the workplace.

Ilya S. Savenok via Getty ImagesWriter, producer and director Kitty Green, left, and actress Julia Garner attend the Sundance Film Festival's premiere of "The Assistant" on Sunday in Park City, Utah.

This film came about after the Harvey Weinstein news, but how did you come to the decision to approach the story in this way?

Kitty Green: I was looking at all the media coverage after the Weinstein story broke, and I was really frustrated that people seemed to be focusing on these men. Just like, Oh, if we get rid of Harvey Weinstein, the problem will be fixed. We solved it, you know? And no. Its so much bigger than that. Its cultural. Its systemic. These workplaces, especially the film industry but most industries, are really gendered and often quite toxic. I wanted to explore that, lets say, through the smaller details.

Was it always your plan to follow a day in the life of a high-powered executives assistant?

KG: It was always the intention. Often I felt, as a woman, when I mentioned something that really shattered or messed with my self-confidence or my self-worth, people would go, Oh, ignore it! Oh, its just a bad day. I felt like I was always complaining, but something was really getting to me. So I thought, how could I show the emotional impact of what people would see as smaller encounters or events that really had a big impact on my self-confidence as a filmmaker and trying to make it in this industry?

I felt like it [would be good if] you could emotionally identify with someone, which is to really be in their shoes and see something from their perspective somebody who oftentimes you ignore. People walk into an assistants office without even acknowledging the assistant most of the time. So I thought, if we could center someone without much power in this narrative and tell her story, I think thats a way to get at the larger problem, which is an office where there is misconduct, where there are women being assaulted, but also the assistant is struggling with her own position and the challenges shes faced in a system thats inherently structured against her and toward white men.

Its a complicated situation to examine.

KG: Thats just it. It was all about, how could we get at the complexity of it? Not just make it black or white, men are bad, women are good its so much more nuanced than that.

Julia, how did you feel when you read the script? Did these complexities come out to you?

Julia Garner: Yeah, I thought the script was amazing. But I was a fan of Kittys before I read the script and before I knew she was going to do another movie. I saw Casting JonBenet the minute it was on Netflix. So, of course, I read [the script] right away and I thought everything translated from what was on the page. It was very clear. Then we met up for coffee, and it was a no brainer. I mean, the first five minutes we were on the same page. You know, you have good meetings, but that was just a special meeting.

KG: Yeah, you were in a pink turtleneck, which sealed the deal. That wasnt scripted but yeah. [Laughs]

JG: I knew that Kitty was my girl. It was early for both of us, we were both miserable without coffee!

Ty Johnson / Bleecker StreetJulia Garner stars as Jane in "The Assistant," directed by Kitty Green.

Im sure you spoke about your own experiences as women in the industry you, Kitty, as a filmmaker and Julia as an actor. Does this film touch on anything in particular youve witnessed or gone through? I know there are different layers to every experience.

KG: Yeah, Ive seen a lot. Ive been on the film festival circuit since Im quite young and because I make independent documentaries, I dont come with a team of publicists. I get sent to these places by yourself and Ive seen a lot of bad behavior, honestly. I arrived at my first Sundance a few years ago and was at a press junket-style thing and the first question that came up was, OK, I want to ask you about what everyones thinking: Who gives you the ideas? Is it James [Schamus] and Scott [Macaulay]? Theyre my two male producers. I immediately thought, wow, I can work so hard and put everything into making a movie and people will still assume that Im not in control and I dont have any power. To me, it was really heartbreaking that people were just disappointed it was me who directed something.

JG: How did you react? Did you just laugh, like, I dont know

KG: I was just shocked, so taken aback. Id meet like a journalist whod do an amazing review of my film and then go, Oh, you directed it. Oh, oh, I get how you did it. Oh, I get it now. You were sweet. You were nice to people. Theyd just write me off immediately, and I got pretty depressed about it. I think The Assistant was born a little bit out of my anger of what Ive seen, not only misconduct but the power imbalance and general disregard for women and their abilities. So, yeah, that all fuels the fire.

Im so sorry you experienced that. It truly angers me.

KG: Yeah, its devastating.

Julia, have you experienced similar situations? I know you started out in this industry years ago as a young woman, which couldnt have been easy.

JG: Yeah, I started when I was 16. I mean, that happens, too, where people are abusive to teenagers, but Ive been really lucky that Ive worked with wonderful people. Ive never been abused physically, verbally, any kind of abuse. But I will say, being a woman in an industry, especially an industry where you have to put yourself out there, you do have to be just wary about different things, you know? You have to be careful, but you have to be careful always.

What was it about Kittys approach to this Me Too story that interested you?

JG: Well, it was already very scary when I read it. I had a ton of thoughts running through my head I love this script. I love Kitty. But should I do it? because its a scary movie to do. And if it wasnt Kitty, I dont know if I wouldve done it, just because shes so talented but shes also smart and I knew she was going to take this heavy subject and do this movie in a tasteful way that doesnt feel like shes exploiting anyone. Thats not what I was looking for doing anything that exploited people but I do want to make people connect and be conscious, in a way.

Ty Johnson / Bleecker StreetMatthew Macfadyen stars as HR head Wilcock in "The Assistant."

This movie addresses the toxic culture of these production offices from the fellow male assistants to the women in the workplace to the HR department. Did you explore those storylines by interviewing actual people in those positions?

KG: Yeah, we did research. But I think a lot of the lines in the HR office weve all heard, like [when Wilcock says], We need more women producers. It makes everyone in the audience groan.

JG: Even as simple as the line, Do you know how many other people want your place? So, dont complain. I mean, Ive had that said to me before. So I guess Ive experienced that, but its such a norm that you dont even notice thats happened to you, right? Until you see this movie.

Right, its a mind game.

KG: Its gaslighting, yeah. Its an example of that.

Talk about that HR scene a bit more. You use it as a way to not only address the executives gross behavior but also the ecosystem that protects him.

KG: It was important to me when youre showing a work environment that is headed up by a predator that we show what kept that predator in power and the machinery around him. If you speak to a lot of women who had experiences in offices like this, the HR department is essentially there to protect the company. Its not there to protect the employees, and thats something that really needs to be looked at. There are people doing great work in trying to change that system, but, to me, it was really important [to address]. Although Julias character comes in with these concerns, this HR representative manages to completely rip away any kind of confidence she had, and her logic seems to fall apart in front of him.

JG: He makes her feel like a fool.

KG: Yeah, and she feels, kind of, broken. When you look at the past and other assistants, people say, Well, why didnt she speak up about what she saw? But if you experienced something like what Jane did, you realize she had no one to report this to. Where was she supposed to go? I think that was important.

JG: I also think people are so quick to judge when its not happening to them. It doesnt have to be a predator boss, but think about how many times when something really terrible happens, you hear something terrible or you see something terrible, and youre just so shocked from it that your first initial reaction is you dont know what to do. And then you walk away from it like, Why didnt I do this and why didnt I do that? Its a trauma in a weird way. Its an out-of-body experience where youre there but your presence is sort of on the side. Youre viewing it rather than being present and saying what you want to say.

Weve probably all been in some type of situation where we shouldve spoken up

JG: And Jane did. She spoke up as much as she could.

KG: But shes completely shut down.

JG: She doesnt want to get fired. Its the type of thing where, if she quit, maybe shed try to get a job somewhere else and that big company would say, Dont hire this girl because she doesnt keep her mouth shut, or something. But she still wants to work!

Thats a whole other aspect of it, too, is retaliation. Shes in a dream job for a newcomer in this competitive industry, but it comes at a major price.

JG: Right. Everybody was in that place at one point.

KG: Even her parents saying theyre so proud of her, its just heartbreaking

I was going to bring up Janes parents and how you use phone calls with her family to expand on why she stays in the job.

KG: A lot of people I spoke to said they couldnt tell their parents what was going on. How do you explain that situation to your father? Its really difficult. And, back a few years ago, no one had the language to really talk about this stuff.

Theres been a lot of incredible Me Too-inspired films at Sundance this year, from this to Promising Young Woman, helmed by female filmmakers. And its sad to think that these stories mightve never been made if Weinsteins accusers hadnt come forward.

KG: I know. I definitely dont think we couldve had a film like this made before the rise of the Me Too movement.But its really heartening to see that there is a shift and we are seeing these films being financed and being watched and making money I dont want it to sound like thats all that were in this for, but its a good thing for the industry if those films are doing that. Women are behind the camera, women are leading the charge. Its great to see.

Julia, have you seen a difference in the projects youre seeing or scripts youre reading?

JG: I think its still a new thing, this subject. This film is like the first script Ive seen tackling it. In terms of the industry, though, Ive worked with a lot of female TV directors, and I love it. Its definitely getting better.

The Assistant is now showing in limited release.

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'The Assistant' Examines The Toxic Workplace Culture That Protected Harvey Weinstein - HuffPost

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero