Gloria Steinem and Julie Taymor on “The Glorias”

GLORIA STEINEM, FEMINIST ACTIVIST: Yes. There is no downplaying the amount of damage that is possible from the presidency. But it is also true that now two-thirds of the country is awake to the issues in a way that they would not have been before. A third of the country has succeeded in seizing the top positions, but we have also been educated by seeing everything that’s wrong with the country at — in the White House. So, there is an enormous wave of — and also, right now, perhaps because of the pandemic and people can’t work, you know, so they have time, so that the demonstrations in the street, peaceful demonstrations, have outdone in numbers and in — just, and in depth, anything I’ve ever seen.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Well, that’s quite something given that you’ve been at many demonstrations and many protests throughout your long years as an activist. And, Julie Taymor, why did you decide to end the film with that and not proceed into the Trump administration?

JULIE TAYMOR, DIRECTOR, “THE GLORIAS”: Well, we were — I think that that is a fitting ending, we the people. I think that is a fitting ending to “The Glorias.” It’s not about Trump it’s about the women and about the men and about us, and that’s what we have to remember. I mean, we did shoot — I think you might have heard this, but we did shoot the night of the election at Samantha Power’s apartment with 40 female ambassadors, Madeleine Albright, Gloria Steinem, watching the debacle at that election, and it was just so depressing. I — you know, we thought maybe this film would be a celebration of the first female president, but Gloria brought that magnificent article the next day and that’s included in the film. And I thought that after you have three — four other Glorias starting from age six right up until age 85, I thought, you know, we’re going to end the film with where we are now because this is where we are now, we the people have the right to vote. It’s our presidency.