Kitty Green's new movie, The Assistant, is a searing look at the systems that shield predators like Harvey Weinstein in the entertainment industry. The celebrated film follows an entry-level assistant, played superbly by Ozark's Julia Garner, and her increasing concerns surrounding the shady practices of her tyrannical boss.
Why did you want to tell this story?
I released a movie a few years ago and I was at Sundance with it. I was very excited to be there but straight off the bat, I had questions from journalists that were condescending. There was some underlying sexism there. They'd ask questions like, "Who gives you your ideas, James or Scott?", and they're my two male producers. Bizarre things like that. So I wanted to make a film about sexism in the film industry, microaggressions, and behaviour that goes unnoticed but can affect someone's self-confidence or career path.
You started working on the film before the Harvey Weinstein story broke, how did that affect what you were doing?
I had started working on the subject in colleges in the US because they were having a sexual assault crisis at the time. But once it broke I shifted to a more office-based environment and shifted focus to the film industry. I spoke to a lot of friends who had worked for not only him but for predatory men like him and abusive bosses like him. I started asking what sort of environment supports behaviour like that? Are there any women in those offices? How gendered is the division of labour and tasks? Those sorts of questions. A lot of that was influenced by what I was reading in the press at the time.
How did you feel listening to your friends telling you these stories?
It felt pretty bleak. I was speaking to so many women who were telling me awful stories about being trapped in really awful situations where they didn't feel that there was a path forward for them in their industry. A lot of them experienced verbal abuse or sexual harassment or sexism every day at the office and a lot of them went on to quit. It was disheartening, that's for sure. It was shocking how repetitive it was. I spoke to more than 100 women and I was hearing similar stories every time. It was awful.