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E. Jean Carroll has allowed director Ivy Meeropol to chronicle her storied life and career in the new feature documentary film Ask E. Jean, The Hollywood Reporter revealed.
The film is slated to screen at multiple festivals this fall, with the reported aim of securing a buyer and wide release in time for awards season consideration.
For a while, the journalist, who accused Donald Trump of sexual abuse, was reluctant to provide any filmmaker with the permission and access needed for a project of this magnitude. Meeropol, Carroll said, was the only one who managed to convince her.
“I said, ‘No! No! No! Nooooooo!’ to all documentary filmmakers,” Carroll said. “Then I met the stupendous Ivy Meeropol. Only Ivy possesses the wit and grit to capture a dingbat who gives people advice for 30 years, never takes any of it herself, laughs at life’s quagmires and ends up the only person to beat the most powerful man on the planet — twice.”
In 2023, a jury found that Trump was liable for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her when she came forward with the allegations in 2019. She was one of more than 20 women to accuse Trump of sexual misconduct. She is also the only one whose claim has been adjudicated in a court of law.
Speaking out was something Carroll had previously decided against doing, vowing to keep the alleged assault to herself. Last year, she told Rolling Stone, “I was never, never, never, ever going to speak on this. Ever. And then both my parents died, and that freed me. I didn’t want to hurt them. It would have killed them. They both died in 2016, and then, just as I was never, never, never going to say a word, #MeToo happened.”
She added: “I thought: This is a possibility. And then I went on a road trip and got really angry. I started to think about what happened to me. I started to think: He’s president of the United States — and I knew what he had done to me. It’s terrifying, because you worry you’ll lose your job. You know he’s going to retaliate. You know there’s going to be a threat. You know all this, you have to take that all into consideration. Then I met [my lawyer] Robbie Kaplan and told her the story. And you know what Robbie says? ‘That is so crazy. It’s got to be true.’”
For Meeropol, going up against Trump (and winning) was a documentary-worthy feat, but it wasn’t the whole story. “What drew me to E. Jean Carroll wasn’t just the headline-making accusation, it was her voice: bawdy, brilliant, hilarious and brutally honest,” the director said. “As I dug deeper, I discovered a woman who had lived many lives, from beauty queen, sorority sister, trailblazing journalist, TV host and advice columnist. She moved through the male-dominated media world of the ’80s and ’90s with flair and fearlessness, all while navigating the impact of experiences she hadn’t yet named.”
From 1993 to 2019, Carroll wrote the Ask E. Jean column for Elle. She also worked as an editor for Esquire, Playboy, and Outside magazines. She recently published Not My Type: One Woman vs. a President, a book about the trial.
“In telling her story, I want audiences to feel the full weight and joy of her journey, and to witness a woman reclaiming her voice, her history and, ultimately, her power,” Meeropol said.
