Kitty Green’s “The Assistant” Sheds Light on the #MeToo Workplace Nightmare
Australian writer-director Kitty Green’s film, “The Assistant,” is a fictional look at toxic workplace behaviors that have allowed female women to be exploited. Driven by the Weinstein scandal, Green switched gears in her college campus sexual assault research and began researching not only toxic entertainment work places but tech and financial institutions as well.
The film stars Emmy winner Julia Garner a recent college graduate working as an assistant to a powerful and abusive film executive. In viewing the film, it plays more like a horror movie as the dark tone and nuances build to a crescendo. Taking place all in one day, the excellent film, “The Assistant” will leave you with an uneasy feeling, one that screams for a call to action.
I spoke with Kitty Green on February 4, when she was here in Chicago.
Sarah Knight Adamson:
You’ve labeled “The Assistant,” a fiction film that had an intensive documentary-style research process. Can you tell us what drew you to this project?
Kitty Green:
There are a few reasons. One of them was I was working on something that was a project about consent on college campuses. I was traveling around to colleges talking to students about those subjects and how they felt their institutions were doing handling these things. And then the Weinstein story broke when I was at Stanford. A few of my friends were working there at the Weinstein company. A few friends had also worked in similar environments with predatory men at the helm. I was basically interested in why; I was interested in the culture in some of these environments and why there weren’t many women in power in those environments. So, that became the focus.
SKA:
As a female writer and filmmaker, what obstacles have you personally faced?
KG:
It’s hard to know what’s an obstacle because of your gender and what’s just an obstacle because it’s difficult to be in the film industry. What was annoying me a few years ago was I had a film at Sundance and a lot of people asking me questions. The press was asking me questions like, “Which of your producers gives you your ideas?” Kind of patronizing questions that implied that I’m not in control creatively somehow. I found that really frustrating. And that led to me wanting to make a movie about gender and work environments. And I thought if people are doubting me and I’m in a position of power, then what happens when you’re an assistant or something like that? How do you keep your self-confidence in check?
SKA: Julia Garner, whom I love watching on Netflix in Ozark, she’s fantastic; she plays a very different role here. What does Julia bring to this film in particular?
KG:
Julia brings so much. I was looking for someone who had an interesting look because I knew there wasn’t much dialog, and it was going to be about getting an audience to connect with her just doing mundane tasks. There’s something about her. She’s striking. It seemed like the perfect fit. I met her for a coffee, and she read the script, and she seemed to really like it and get what we were trying to do. And then the two of us spent a lot of time figuring out the character together. Chatting about who she was and what her motivations were. We interviewed some assistants together. I think a lot of the character was created out of that pre-production process, as well as rehearsals.
SKA:
Your portrayal of the toxic work environment, Julia’s arrival during the darkness. It looked like it was super early 5:00 am or something. And I felt like she was entering the lion’s den. It was just intense. The tone was just great. Can you tell us your vision and perhaps the techniques you used in creating this toxic work environment that would cross over into so many other work environments other than just entertainment? I believe that you did.
KG:
I talked to a lot of people who worked in the entertainment industry, but I also spoke to the women who worked in tech and finance. They had similar stories. I was conscious on focusing on the ordinary rather than the extraordinary. I was really interested in the stories that were relatable to any woman who’d worked in an office.
KG:
When I was directing, I was trying to think about was it is about the system, this broader system, I think, which is keeping women out of power. But it’s also all these tiny microaggressions, these little moments. Like gestures and looks and the way someone can ignore you or make you feel invisible in some spaces. It’s all about those tiny, tiny things, which, as a director, was really fun to play with that.
SKA:
No, I appreciate your style. It can just appeal to so many different people. Not just a certain type.
KG:
Yeah, I hope so. To be honest, we screened at Sundance, and there were a number of women who came up to me from different industries who said, “Wow. That’s me.” People are responding to it from all different fields.
SKA:
In all of your research on the topic of sexual harassment, what areas do you think we can help change?
KG:
Oh, we need to help with the change. Partly, because everyone’s thinking, “Oh, we got rid of Harvey Weinstein and Matt Lauer. It’s fixed now.” The problem is so much bigger than that. I think we need to fix our work environments so that they’re less gendered. I heard again and again that women would be asked to make the coffee or buy the milk. All of these kinds of duties that are considered women’s work; I was focusing on those in film. The idea that when the kids come to the office, Julia’s character has to take care of them as opposed to the boys looking after them. So yeah, I think we need to fix those old behaviors. Reexamine that if we want to make things better for everybody.
SKA:
What surprised you most in your research?
KG:
What surprised me the most? To be honest, probably just the repetition. I just had the same stories again and again, which was really shocking. And I interviewed women in Melbourne, in London, in LA, in New York, and I was hearing again and again these people feeling really like they were stripped of their self-confidence in these positions. That they felt they were abusive work places. I never knew it was that common. But just hearing it, hearing how common it is, is terrifying, really.
SKA:
And in Jane’s situation in the film, what do you think she should have done other than quit? What should women do? I mean, she went to Human Resources and was shot down. That was a really intense upsetting scene. But I’m sure that’s very common. What happened to her.
KG:
The film is set pre the rise of the #MeToo Movement. That’s not clear when it is, but I assume it’s before all the news broke. But I say that these days there are more spaces and we have the language to speak about misconduct in a way that we didn’t used to. I think that’s changing for the better. I still don’t think it’s always possible to do. I do think we still got a long way to go. But I think it’s getting a little better and I’m hoping that more conversations like this will help improve it even further.
SKA:
Well, I certainly think your film will help. That’s for sure.
KG:
Yeah, well, that would be the ideal. We’d love to contribute in some way. We’re also giving 10% of the profit’s share, going to the New York Women’s Foundation, who support Tarana Burke’s #MeToo and other organizations who are actually on the ground doing the work.
Sarah Knight Adamson© February 7, 2020