Monica Lewinsky

And in hindsight, I realized the pressure we were both under.

Like, we didn't want to participate in any sort of trauma porn.

Yeah.

You know, but you also want to get it right.

And you want to...

historically pay tribute to the truth and be a vessel for truth.

And I remember us just like debating and arguing about how we were going to shoot this scene to the point where I just said the night before we were going to shoot the scene, I said to the director, Anthony Hemingway, I don't want to talk about this scene tomorrow.

Don't talk to me about it.

Don't say nothing.

All I want you to do, just let the cameras roll.

And I just ask that you shoot everyone else.

And when you get to me, I just ask, don't let me hear the sound of the whip until the camera is rolling.

Because I don't really know how I'm going to do this tomorrow.

Wow.

I remember being on set and I was standing near this oak tree.

And I just looked up and I thought of like, oh, all of the things that this oak tree has seen.

It has been here for over 200 years.

And I heard Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit.

And I thought of all the beautiful bodies who have seen this tree as their last image.

And all I did was I prayed for the ancestors to use me as a vessel.