Lady Gaga was joined by Diane Warren, as well as The Hunting Ground director Kirby Dick and producer Amy Ziering for a TimesTalk about the movie and the Grammy-nominated song "Til It Happens to You" with New York Times columnist Frank Bruni.
On the "Til It Happens to You" video:
It's powerful stuff. And, half the stuff I put into the world people don't even take the right way anyway. It's not that you don't want to put your arms around the universe, of course that's what I wanna do all the time. But what if I were to align myself with this project and somehow leave a stench of inauthenticity all around it where people would not focus on the message? I said, 'I don't want to get in the way.' I didn't want to be in the video, I wanted it to be about the song and the message.
On victim-blaming:
Don't you always find the naysayers that are going "Are those women really telling the truth?" When women come forward with any sort of sexual grievance, it's always "Oh, are you sure that happened?" And you know, in the society, so much pressure is put on women to be beautiful. How could you do that? How could you put so much pressure on women (and men!) to be beautiful, to be successful, and then, when they are raped, to say "What were you wearing?" or "How were you portraying yourself?" This is like, we can't win.
On the importance of being a part of the movement:
Not to take anything away from our politicians who are looking out for our country... some of them. I really hope that anyone watching this today hears that the most important people to change the world is you. I'm not looking to the government to change my life, I'm not looking toward the next president, I'm not looking toward our next world leaders. I'm looking at everyone in this room. I mean, you are culture. So if you care, and if your friend is going to rape someone in your fraternity or sorority, or in your school, or in a work situation, or in an alleyway outside a restaurant, whatever it is that your job is, if you say something and if you are a part of that greater world change, that is more powerful than any single person that's in office.
Watch Gaga open up about her latest song, being sexually assaulted at a young age, and the importance of supporting rape survivors, below...
Monsters, what did you think about the conversation? Share your thoughts in the comments!