Variety & Rolling Stone Truth Seekers Summit presented by Paramount+, explores the art of documentary and investigative storytelling. Exclusive keynote conversations and panel discussions with leading documentary filmmakers, journalists, and cultural trendsetters making an impact and effecting change.
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00:00I want to start, Eugene, with you and ask you
00:04about the mental calculus that you went through
00:08when you were wrestling with the idea of coming forward
00:13with this story.
00:15Because I know when someone has survived sexual assault,
00:20there's not a lot of incentive to come forward afterwards
00:24to law enforcement, to friends, to anyone.
00:29The easiest thing to do is to just never speak about it again.
00:32And so I'm wondering how you thought through this.
00:36And I'm curious, when Donald Trump announced
00:39he was running for president, when the Access Hollywood tape
00:42came up, what were you thinking at those different points?
00:45I was never, never, never, ever going
00:48to speak about this, ever, ever.
00:53And then both my parents died.
00:56And that freed me.
00:57I didn't want to hurt them.
00:59I would have killed them.
01:01They both died the year 2016.
01:06And then, just as I was never, never, never
01:11going to say a word, Me Too happened.
01:15Jodi Kantner, Meghan Thewey, Ronan Farrow
01:20came forward with the Weinstein story.
01:22And women all over the country started
01:25to say what happened to them.
01:27I thought, this is a possibility.
01:28This is a possibility.
01:31And then I went on a road trip and got really angry.
01:36I started to think, what happened to me?
01:38I started to think, he's president of the United States.
01:44And I knew what he had done to me.
01:47And it was, well, first of all, it's
01:53terrifying, because you know if you come forward,
01:55you're going to lose your job.
01:58You know he's going to retaliate.
02:01You know there's going to be a threat.
02:03You know all this.
02:04You have to take that into account.
02:06Then I met Robbie Kaplan and told her the story
02:14in her office on the 63rd floor.
02:17And you know what Robbie said?
02:20That is so crazy, it's got to be true.
02:24And took the case.