#MeToo: A year later in habitual Hollywood
Entertainment industry makes progress exiling its predators, but change is slow
There’s a consensus in Hollywood: Change is slow in coming, but the industry can’t afford to let the gas run out. And it might. ❚ A year ago, the #MeToo movement took flight as The New York Times and The New Yorker published stories cracking open the decades-long predation of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. Since then, the producer has been banished from the glitterati’s ranks, and more victims began speaking up about the horrors behind Hollywood’s doors. (A New York judge will decide if a case against Weinstein involving assault and rape will move forward Nov. 8; aside from civil suits, he faces a civil dis-
“The ultimate
problem is getting
fully formed and
grown adults
to break habits.” Morgana McKenzie Freelance camera operator
crimination case brought by the New York attorney general).
So, too, went the standing (and careers) of top executives and formerly revered figures such as Charlie Rose, Louis C.K. and Kevin Spacey. Some cases have proved too old or flimsy to hold up in court; prosecutors rejected filing charges against actors Ed Westwick and Anthony Anderson, while director Bret Ratner settled with one of his accusers, whom he sued for defamation this week.
Jobs were lost by “Transparent” star Jeffrey Tambor, who was fired by Amazon after sexual harassment claims (he denied the allegations), and the “Today” show’s Matt Lauer, who was dismissed after allegations rose against him. Last week, Bill Cosby, who faced accusations from more than 60 women before #MeToo, went to state prison for drugging and molesting a woman.
As the one-year anniversary approaches – and the country focuses on whether Christine Blasey Ford’s emotional testimony will deter Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s ascent to the Supreme Court – is Hollywood’s #MeToo movement in full flux or in danger of losing traction?
Much of that answer comes from the actual changes women see off the red carpet: on the ground, in meetings, in auditions or on sets.
In February, a USA TODAY investigation found that 94% of women surveyed who worked in the entertainment industry said they had experienced some form of sexual harassment or assault over the course of their careers.
It is futile to expect a dramatic change in the pervasive extent of workplace sexual abuse in a mere 365 days, in Hollywood or anywhere else in American life.
Quantifying change in a reliable and understandable way is tricky when dealing with a complicated multibilliondollar international industry that operates at the intersection between economic and artistic priorities.
How has the industry fared in its effort to put new protocols in place to prevent history from repeating itself ?
New ways to report harassment
In the past year, more support has become available to victims. Time’s Up launched and raised $22 million for its Legal Defense Fund, administered by the National Women’s Law Center.
Women in Film’s Los Angeles chapter launched a helpline in December and received hundreds of calls from women who said they’d experienced sexual abuse and harassment, according to executive director Kirsten Schaffer. They referred roughly 100 women to pro bono attorneys.
This week, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill into law in California that prohibits secret settlements and nondisclosure agreements in sexual harassment cases. Beginning in 2019, a victim can choose to keep his or her name private, but the perpetrator’s identity cannot be confidential.
The law can go only so far. Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey established a task force of specially trained prosecutors after the Weinstein news broke to investigate allegations of sex crimes in the entertainment industry. Law enforcement agencies have referred 36 cases to the sex crimes unit, but there has yet to be a criminal filing.
Lacey’s spokesman Greg Risling says 10 cases were declined because they were outside the statute of limitations; open cases involve Weinstein, Sylvester Stallone, Steven Seagal, Kevin Spacey, adult film star Ron Jeremy and producer David Guillod.
Most Hollywood studios and companies say they have retrained their staffs on harassment (many including unconscious bias training). But what follows the sessions is often laughter.
“The way people react when they walk out of those meetings, it’s almost, like, funny,” says Brittany Rostron, the founder of FACES, a nonprofit organization aimed at helping women develop their careers in the entertainment industry.
“It’s not taken that seriously for the most part,” says Rostron, who worked on several studio-backed productions in the past year. “It seems more like a ‘this is what we have to do now’ and less ‘we’re trying to change the culture of the industry.’ ”
Some studios don’t want to talk about how they address sexual harassment within their studio systems. Warner Bros. and Sony issued statements to USA TODAY affirming their commitment to workplaces free of unlawful discrimination, harassment and retaliation. Disney, 21st Century Fox, Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios declined to comment or respond.
Unions have beefed up their support systems:
❚ The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees says it redoubled outreach efforts to inform members about resources and saw an increase in reports of inappropriate workplace conduct to its hotline and representatives.
❚ As of July 2017, before Weinstein hit the news, the Directors Guild of America began including a provision for employers to provide sexual harassment training for all members.
❚ The Producer’s Guild of America urges the practice of naming multiple, gender-diverse crew members on sets as points of contact for reporting harassment.
❚ The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists called for a ban on auditions and interviews in hotel rooms or residences unless a support peer is present. SAGAFTRA is likely to work the proviso into its 2020 contracts.
❚ SAG-AFTRA began to offer counseling services and scenario-specific guidance for members on how to avoid and/ or address sexual harassment in the workplace.
The audition guideline “has had a powerful impact,” says Gabrielle Carteris, SAG-AFTRA president. “I’ve heard directly from members that they are seeing a shift in industry norms. Our members are feeling more empowered to decline these types of meetings and value the ability to request a support peer.”
Is it enough?
“It’s awesome that unions are putting things in place, now it’s just a matter of time of waiting to see them take effect,” says Morgana McKenzie, a freelance camera operator who shared her story with USA TODAY of the daily harassment endured on set. “People are this way because of habitual behavior. So we can post as many posters and PSAs as we want, (but) the ultimate problem is getting fully formed and grown adults to break habits, and that’s hard.”
‘Real big price to pay’
Nonunion employees and employees who work for smaller companies, some of which lack dedicated HR teams, remain vulnerable. Many people fear retaliation for speaking out. If they’re blackballed, they lose the ability to pay their bills.
Terry Lawler, executive director of New York Women in Film & Television, says she’s seen “an uptick in calls but not necessarily an uptick in legal action” on the group’s hotline, managed by the Human Rights Commission. “There’s still a real big price to pay for coming forward.”
L.A.-based labor lawyer Genie Harrison, who represents a former Weinstein assistant and filed a case against Spacey, stresses that “every single” hotline caller with a harassment complaint should be referred to a lawyer to understand “what the consequences are going to be if they choose not to take action within the statute of limitations.”
The odds remain stacked against the women who come forward unless investigations are handled appropriately – which, in many cases, comes down to whether an organization brings in a third party to investigate, says Angela Reddock-Wright, managing attorney of Reddock
Law Group.
Reddock-Wright, who has seen a 25 percent increase in calls for investigations by Hollywood-related corporations and guilds, says impartiality must be a major factor in investigations.
“You’re supposed to bring in someone independent, and you’re not supposed to put any inhibitions on the investigation,” she says. “That’s going to be the next stage of the #MeToo movement – companies understanding they need to get on top of these complaints right away.”
A new temperature on set
Last month, Julia Roberts acknowledged she was the wrong sort of star to speak out, given how seldom she dips back into the throes of the industry. “I can’t say that I’m a credible witness because I don’t really participate in the world enough,” the Oscar winner told USA TODAY. “But I would say energetically I feel that people that felt they had to be silent don’t feel that way anymore.”
Talk to those in the trenches, and it’s clear there has been a shift, at least as far as representation goes.
Actress Megan Densmore, who came forward with her story of sexual assault in USA TODAY’s investigation, says agents used to tell her, “Well, you’re not blond enough, and your boobs aren’t big enough.” The actress is a professional body builder. “Now I look even more specific and unique ... and I’m getting auditions.”
Densmore says that since the spring, she’s auditioned for roles that weren’t necessarily written for women. “I get a lot of auditions that were clearly written male that even sometimes have the pronouns adjusted,” she says, noting “a slight open-mindedness” by those casting traditionally male parts, such as doctors or military personnel. They’re “trying to find room (for more women), is what it feels like,” she says.
“People are specifically reaching out and saying, ‘I would really love to have more women on my team or in my department,’ ” as location scouts, production assistants and directors of photography, says Rostron, who shared her story of harassment by a college professor with USA TODAY this year. “That is the real benefit of the #MeToo movement.”
A changed mood is affecting big projects, too. Keira Knightley will soon begin work on “Misbehavior,” a feminist story she says she doesn’t think would have been greenlit a year ago.
On the surface, everyone is noticing the optics, Knightley says. “We did a crew photo, and somebody made a comment like, ‘Oh, where are the 10 women we’ve got?’ ” the two-time Oscar nominee says. “People are actually looking around and going, ‘This is really white and male.’ And that’s a change. Because I’ve never heard that, even though it was obvious before.”
The spotlight has grown in the past year to push equality across the board, in pay and opportunity. NBC instituted Female Forward, which gives women a pipeline to directing its TV shows, and HBO retroactively fixed gender-based pay disparities within its shows.
“I’ve definitely seen a commitment to hiring more women as directors and in other positions,” Lawler says. When it comes to #MeToo, “I think men are just being much more cautious, but I don’t think there’s an actual understanding of what needs to change culturally. Considering women to be lesser, not equal, is still there.”
When women are the boss
Many could do without the snark. “My experience of it so far has been a lot of lip service,” says Tatiana Maslany, the Emmy-winning star of “Orphan Black.” “I’m on set or I’m in a situation, and somebody will be like, ‘Oh, you can’t do that anymore.’ They’ll say that in general, and it seems like it’s an affront as opposed to an actual internalized change.”
When women are the boss, it still often takes only one misogynistic voice to poison the well, says Emmy-nominated director Kari Skogland of “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
A year into #MeToo, Skogland says she’s less afraid of speaking up and being labeled hard to work with. Still, disrespect “can come from anywhere. I’ve found crews to be very respectful. I think it often comes from only one bad egg who has enough of a voice that it polarizes a situation. I’m very good now at identifying that voice and making sure that they understand we’re equals and that I won’t tolerate it.”
Director/producer Ryan Murphy’s sets require 50 percent of women behind the camera in accordance with his Half Initiative.
The Emmy-nominated “American Horror Story” actress Adina Porter says that when it comes to reception of male and female directors, “there’s totally a difference.”
“Sometimes I have seen women having to prove themselves to the crew,” Porter says. “I love the crew and everything, but I have witnessed it. And I see her having to kind of take a breath and decide when she’s going to speak up. ... I’ve seen women directors, their minds kind of going, OK, a little bit, like when I’m dealing with my kids. Like, ‘OK, I’m going to choose to pick this fight but not that one.’ ”
It’s why bystander engagement is so important, experts say.
“Even one person making an effort to contribute as best as they can to promoting a safe and respectful work environment has a positive impact,” says Laura Palumbo, communication director at the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. “We need for changes to be happening at all levels, at the policy level but also with individuals that are seeing this as an opportunity to be a part of changing the workplace culture.”
The numbers are still harrowing
Many say the biggest imperative is keeping a stadium-sized spotlight on #MeToo, because the numbers – about workplace sexual harassment and about the lack of women in power roles in Hollywood – are still sobering.
Nearly all the women who responded to USA TODAY’s survey said they experienced some form of harassment or assault, often by an older individual in a position of power over the accuser. More than one-fifth of respondents (21%) said they had been forced to do something sexual at least once and 69% of women said they had been touched in a sexual way at work.
Recent studies mirror these results. A survey conducted by the Writers Guild of America West found 64 percent of women said they had faced sexual harassment at some point in their careers in film and TV. A study from Hiscox found 41 percent of female workers countrywide said that they experienced harassment in the workplace.
“There have been times throughout the year where people have been over it or tired of it or the (accused) men were going back to work,” Schaffer says. “We can’t get tired of it – the media, the culture. It’s still happening. It’s not over.”