It’s been five years since The New York Times and Ronan Farrow, contributing writer for The New Yorker, broke Havey Weinstein’s story of criminal conduct. “There was a lot of frustration in the national conversation about gender and sexual violence, and then, Harvey's place in Hollywood changed, and maybe in some subtle ways Hollywood started to change,” he says.
Once Farrow broke the story, he got in touch with Kim Masters, editor-at-large at The Hollywood Reporter. She says at that point, she had heard rumors about Weinstein abuses for many years.
“I'd heard about Harvey assaulting women. I hadn't realized it was like his second job, and I didn't understand, at that point, the degree to which I came to understand that it's always a pattern, in my experience covering these stories,” she says. “I should have realized this wasn't just a couple of incidents.” Since then, she has written several exposes on the case.
The Business presents a conversation between Farrow and Masters moderated by THR’s senior film editor Rebecca Keegan about their behind-the-scenes work that propelled the #MeToo movement, the emotional toll of handling accounts of assault and abuse, how that moment came to pass, and whether the industry has seen enough to change.
But first, Masters and Matt Belloni discuss Netflix’s new revenue and profit strategy announcement.