Women Fire Back at Louis C.K. in ‘Sorry/Not Sorry’ Trailer
The comedians who put their careers on the line to expose Louis C.K.’s long history of sexual harassment are finally getting the theatrical release that the #MeToo movement denied I Love You, Daddy.
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Almost seven years ago, Louis C.K. released a statement to The New York Times openly admitting that the accusations made against him by numerous female comics regarding sexual harassment and misconduct were completely true, even after he and his associates spent years shooting down such claims and professionally retaliating against the accusers. C.K.’s admission only came after the distributor for I Love You, Daddy canceled the premiere of C.K.’s film about his complicated feelings toward Woody Allen amidst the mounting accusations, and the ensuing fallout brought C.K.’s burgeoning career to a screeching halt.
In the modern era, C.K. is back to selling out stadiums such as Madison Square Garden, and the bad behavior to which he confessed in 2017 has been relegated to a punchline by him and his famous friends.
In Sorry/Not Sorry, documentarians Cara Mones and Caroline Suh examine C.K.’s long history of open misbehavior leading up to the events of 2017, the fallout from his sexual harassment scandal and the impact that both the harassment and the backlash had on the lives and careers of the female comedians who stepped forward to share their inappropriate experiences with the stand-up star.
On July 12th, comics like Abby Schachner will finally have the opportunity to explain to the world what it’s like to go from being one of C.K.’s victims to being the butt of his jokes as he flaunts his transgressions during his ongoing comeback — though Schachner isn’t shy about also mining the experience for material, either. She jokes in the trailer, “When I said I wanted to work with Louis C.K., I should have been more specific.”
Sorry/Not Sorry also features interviews with prominent members of the comedy community who, like most comedy fans who paid any attention, had heard rumors of C.K.’s habitual harassment of woman comics for years before the allegations proved too powerful for him and his friends to silence. One such interviewee is Jen Kirkman, who faced heavy backlash in the comedy world simply for hinting at C.K.'s reputation among women in comedy back in 2015, as well as sitcom magnate Michael Shur and The State member Michael Ian Black will offer their opinions on C.K.’s fall from grace and quick resurgence.
“The most essential thing we took away from making the film wasn’t really about Louis C.K. himself or men behaving badly,” director Suh told The Daily Beast of Sorry/Not Sorry. “What was really so surprising was learning how hard it is to redirect one’s focus from worrying about the men — why Louis did what he did and what happened to him — to asking why it took so long for anyone to care. And most importantly, why we don’t really take much time to think about why women get so much punishment for just saying what happened.”
Critically, Suh hopes to steer the conversation surrounding C.K.’s treatment of women away from the common defense of, “Was the behavior illegal?” to the human question of, “Do we believe it is fair to treat people this way?” Or as Suh posited, “Sexual harassment forces people to have to make calculations long after the incident —maybe you decide to turn down a job or you avoid a networking event. Even seemingly small moments can add up and change the course of a career.”
Suh added simply, “I think we need to also look at the role we all play in these kinds of stories, and whose careers we work hardest to protect.”
