Hollywood, Five Years Later

In 2017, the Weinstein investigation and #MeToo movement shook the world. Where does the industry stand today?

- KAYLA WEBLEY ADLER

When actress Sarah Ann Masse saw the New York Times's investigation of Harvey Weinstein, published five years ago this October, her heart dropped into her stomach. For the first time since Weinstein had interviewed her in his underwear to be a nanny for his children in 2008, pulling her into a tight hug and telling her he loved her, she learned she was not alone. "I saw the first story and started thinking, Well, maybe now I can talk, maybe now I can tell my story, and my career won't be destroyed," she remembers. She told her story in Variety at the time and ended up joining the class action lawsuit against Weinstein, who has since been sentenced to 23 years in prison in New York and faces further charges in Los Angeles. "I was most fearful about retaliation," Masse says. "And in those first couple of months, after people started coming forward with their stories about powerful abusers, there was a general sense of support and understanding and community. It felt like there might actually be this sea change happening." Days after the Weinstein article was published, the hashtag #MeToo, citing the phrase originally coined by activist and abuse survivor Tarana Burke in 2006, went viral. By October 2018, it had been used on Twitter more than 19 million times, often accompanied by testimonials of sexual violence.