Hollywood loves a journalism movie.
What do you remember about your first meetings with them?
ZOE KAZAN:I think I met Jodi first because we were both in New York.
Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan as Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey in ‘She Said’.Universal Pictures
We went to dinner.
We live in neighborhoods very close to each other.
My daughter was going to preschool at the same place that her daughter had gone to preschool.
Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan in ‘She Said’.JoJo Whilden/Universal Pictures
It felt like there was all this overlap.
I was so nervous because they’re both very intimidating not as people, but for who they are.
I felt like we had really known each other for a long time.
They were both so generous with us about opening up their lives.
I imagine it must be uncomfortable to be the subject when you’re so often not the subject.
CAREY MULLIGAN:Yeah, I was pretty nervous.
So we Zoomed, and I think the first Zoom was all four of us.
I just wanted to do it justice, so I was nervous.
They’re intimidating figures if you don’t know them because they’resoimpressive.
But they were just so lovely.
Were there any details you were surprised to learn?
KAZAN:I think I was surprised by how much they knew and how early.
Everything had to be airtight.
Jodi says it was like writing a legal document, just putting that giant jigsaw puzzle together.
He would be held accountable, and then this incredible movement would be propelled by this.
But none of that was inevitable.
It was all completely unknown.
There was no inevitability about any of it.
I think they felt that even as they published it.
So it was interesting to put yourself back in 2017, a different world.
So much happened as a result of this, and they had no idea it would happen.
That’s the interesting thing about telling this story in 2022.
MULLIGAN:I don’t think they can even fully process it now.
I can’t imagine what that must feel like.
They describe it like a river changing the course of its direction.
The film also portrays Jodi and Megan not just as journalists but as working mothers.
That’s not necessarily a perspective we often see on screen.
What interested you about that part of this story?
MULLIGAN:I mean, for me, Megan’s experience was something I really connected to immediately.
I had a pretty similar experience myself with my first child.
I think it’s something that so many people go through that we just don’t talk about.
I was really delighted that she chose to include it and that she shared it.
She didn’t have to.
KAZAN:We rewatchedAll the President’s Menas we were getting ready to do this.
Their work can be the center of their life.
Both things had to stay up in the air that whole time.
I really felt this great community of women.
When you think about the great canon of classic journalism movies, it’s a lot of men.
You don’t necessarily see stories about people who are extraordinary investigative journalists and also working mothers.
Their experience brought them together, and this partnership made it possible.
Because so many capable journalists had attempted to run this story and hadn’t been able to do it.
I do think motherhood is a part of it.
I think they bonded through their experience of motherhood.
They also both had daughters, and I know that personally inspired them as they went through this.
KAZAN:They also had the institutional support ofThe New York Times,which you see in the film.
But itreallymakes a difference when an institution likeTheNew York Timesputs their muscle behind it.
I know you got to actually shoot in theNew York Timesoffices during the early days of the pandemic.
What was it like to be filming in that space?
MULLIGAN:That’s where we started the shoot.
We started in theNew York Timesbuilding, and it had been empty since March 2020.
And it was so weird!
It’s such an important place to them, and we were there with our crew.
[Laughs]
That’s so funny.
You think, “I’m in the middle of the action!”
except there is no action.
MULLIGAN:It was empty.
It was completely empty, and we populated it with supporting artists.
But production design was very specific with Megan and Jodi about what their particular desks looked like.
We really wanted to recreate it.
KAZAN:But it was like everyone had been lifted out of the building.
There was Valentine’s Day candy still on people’s desks and shoes under their desks.
It was very strange.
How did you want to approach your on-screen friendship?
MULLIGAN:I just can’t imagine ever having done it with anyone else.
We’ve known each other for 14 years.
Zoe was a bridesmaid at my wedding.
We’d looked for years for something to do together, whether on stage or TV or whatever.
But we never foundthething.
Personally, I’ve never had anything like it on a film before.
We were pretty confident we could do the best friends part at the end.
There’s somewhat of a tension.
Megan doesn’t totally believe in Jodi’s mission.
We had to give a little bit more thought to how this relationship starts and what brings them together.
When you think back to filming, what’s the day that sticks out the most in your mind?
MULLIGAN:I loved the newsroom stuff.
So they both knew the whole script in all the scenes that they were in together.
I could finish her sentence, or she could finish mine.
I remember the first time we did that was really fun.
It was such a partnership, so they could really finish each other’s sentences.
MULLIGAN:Just on that note, JoJo [Whilden] was our photographer on set.
So, we went and did that really quickly.
Now, that’s the poster!
KAZAN:That never happens.
All the good posters end up being things that are genuinely just taken from the film.
But that was one where we were posing.
[Laughs]
MULLIGAN:I find it so funny.
It’s a kind of Easter egg that it’s based on this still fromAll the President’s Men!
