Tell her about-, so his law firm Taft,
since the movie came out, has all these young people
wanting to come and do this kind of law.
That's so great.
I feel inspired, definitely, so thank you.
That's great, keep it up, buddy.
So, Mark, let's face it, you're very famous.
Do you get to produce and star in film like this
in a way of sharing your passions?
Yeah, you know,
there's ones that you do that are just purely entertainment,
and that has its rightful place, right?
And then sometimes, if you're lucky and the story's right,
you get to tell a story about people's struggles
and their hardships and their eventual triumphs.
What struck me was how big this story was,
how deep it was in all of our lives,
how it's poisoned every human being.
It's in every human being in the world's blood
and none of us knew about it.
I was reading about it in the New York Times Magazine
and not on the cover of every single major publication in the world,
and so I felt this story has to be told,
people have to know this information.
It's their right to know, and films can reach into the culture
in a way that no other medium can do.
Do you think there are ways we can make teenagers like me
feel empowered to stand up to corruption?
I'm hoping that when people see in the film
how normal people like Mr Tennant, his family,
the Kigers, the people in West Virginia,
it can be done and it's doable.
It takes people in their own community
standing up and speaking out to make change like this happen.
Not really helping with my anxieties.
Like a lot of teenagers, I find it hard to know
which companies to trust.
As adults, do you believe in corporate conscience?
Corporations have got to be held accountable.
They have to be regulated, they can't regulate themselves.
Their shareholders won't let them regulate themselves.
But at the same time, I do feel like we're entering a moment
in the corporate world where they understand, too,
that they will be looked at negatively
by their teenagers one day.
Hopefully their teenagers will go to them and say,
'Mom and Dad, are you making this world a better place
or a worse place by the work that you're doing?'
- Yeah, definitely.
I'm gutted I didn't see a bit more girl power,
but a scene that really stood out to me was when Anne Hathaway
was talking about Rob and she said, 'No, it's not just a job, it's home.'
What makes the job so special?
Being able to use your skills to help people.
This was really a place I considered my home town,
a place where my mom and her family grew up, where I spent time as a kid,
and these were people from that town reaching out, wanting help.
And I was able to use my skills as a lawyer to help them,
and that's incredibly rewarding.
- That was amazing, thank you. - Thank you.
So, let's clear this up.
I'm eighteen, I wasn't even born when this story started to take place.
Do you think it's more relevant when it was in 1975
or for kids like me right now?
Well, I think it's intensely relevant because it affects all of us,
it links all of us.
That's the thing about water systems
that they were dumping these toxins into,
is that water systems that might begin
in a little rural community in West Virginia,
and then it starts to spread, and before you know it,
it's spread throughout the entire United States,
and as the movie tells you,
it ultimately has spread throughout the globe.
It sort of links us all, like, through bloodstreams.
Crazy, yeah.
With all the news about the climate crisis now,
it brings me back to asking how can we,
as individuals and companies, be accountable for our own action?
Do you think we're taking the right steps as a society?
The more I hear about the evidence of change and progress on climate,
the more I think we just have to be listening to young people.
I think young people know the severity of the issue,
young people know that there is no postponing
legislation and action around the issue.
This is their lives that are at stake,
and so candidates in the United States like Bernie Sanders
has the biggest following among young people,
and yet he's one of the oldest candidates running.
It's just because he is sincere about it,
and I think that's something that young people hear and believe.
The film made me think about the individual and also community.
What do you think about community these days?
Well, again, it's going to take community.
I think, at the end of the film, Rob almost speaks directly to the camera
and says, 'You know what?'
'It's not gonna be governments, it's not gonna be regulators,
it's not gonna be science that's gonna save us.'
It's people, and the people have to come together and make change,
and that's always how social justice movements have begun,
is with individuals who stand up and say 'enough'.
So that's really what I think a movie like this
hopefully can help encourage,
is information and knowledge that people can take to other people
and form those communities of resistance.
The story's a slow burn, it's a nice simmer when you're cooking the film.
There are some tense moments that had me on the edge of my seat.
How did you feel about putting it into the thriller territory more?
Were you okay with it?
Yeah, you know, what's so funny is the thriller moments in the story
came from reality.
Like when Rob goes and deposes the CEO of DuPont in Wilmington
and he goes into the parking garage, that really happened.
He called his mom up that day and she said,
'Rob, does anybody actually know you're there?'
And he said, 'Uh, actually, no.'
And then he went back to his car
after deposing the CEO for eight hours,
put his key in the car, and worried for his life.
So it was an opportunity, dramatically and cinematically,
to really exploit that scene, but it came from the truth.
- Wow, thank you. - Thank you.
You're so good, those were such amazing questions, seriously.