美国国家公共电台 NPR Actress Ashley Judd's #MeToo Moment Was Driven By A 'Commitment' To Her Younger Self

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

It's Friday, which is when we hear from Story Corps 1. And today, we have a conversation about the biggest story out of Hollywood in many years - indeed, one of the bigger stories in America in recent years - the Harvey Weinstein revelations that sparked a national conversation about sexual misconduct in the workplace. While you almost never hear the voices of celebrities 2 on Story Corps, leading into Oscar weekend, we will hear from one of the first actresses to speak out, Ashley Judd. She sat down to have this conversation with her friend Ted 3 Klontz about her decision to go public with her allegations against Weinstein.

TED KLONTZ: About six months or so ago, you called me. And you said, I'm going to do it. And that meant allow New York Times to use your name specifically.

ASHLEY JUDD: Yes. I remember I told my mom. And she said, go get him, honey. And then when I spoke 4 with my attorney, of course, she had concerns about lawsuits 5 raining down on my head. But she also said, Ashley, if you can't do this, who can?

KLONTZ: I was scared, by the way. I had a bit of a, I think, fatherly protective thing. And I wonder if you could tell me where you think that courage came from.

JUDD: I think the courage comes from the little girl inside of me and my commitment to doing right by her. You know, I was sexually molested 6 for the first time that I remember when I was 7 years old. And I immediately went and told two adults. They said, oh, he's a nice old man. That's not what he meant. But that seed in me was planted that I knew when something felt wrong. And, you know, the greatness of this moment is that, finally, the world was able to hear. You know, I'm going to go ahead and swear. I don't give a [expletive] what it costs me. All I can do is the next good, right, honest thing and let go of the results.

KLONTZ: It's almost as if you're concerned about what it cost you not to speak up.

JUDD: Yes. And that would be my integrity. And I guess I really believe that in the long term, there is a payoff for that. Harvey, in his own way, has given us a great gift. His decades of abuse - it was the funeral pyre to what hopefully will have been the old ways.

KLONTZ: It - yeah, I remember you telling me.

JUDD: Yeah.

KLONTZ: And I didn't do anything about it, either. And so right here - now I'll make amends 7 for that because I had an opportunity to do something with it, too.

JUDD: I appreciate the amends. And you're off the hook. None of us knew what to do. None of us knew what to do.

KLONTZ: This thing that you did - by allowing your name to be used - sort of pulled the last little plug out of the dam.

JUDD: We've just flung the barn doors wide open, and the horses have run out. And the joy of the stampede has surprised me. I didn't know that it would be so joyous 8.

(SOUNDBITE OF FATS KAPLIN'S "I CAN'T WAIT")

INSKEEP: That's the actress Ashley Judd with her friend Ted Klontz at Story Corps in Nashville, Tenn. Their conversation is part of a Story Corps partnership 9 with the Time's Up movement in an effort to document the stories of working women, past and present, across America.

(SOUNDBITE OF FATS KAPLIN'S "I CAN'T WAIT")