THE STRANGER: Whatâs it like seeing this with an audience?
AMY BERG: Well, so far itâs been really great. The film is sort of structured in an up-and-down kind of way, and when itâs a full house you can feel the vibe of the audience, which is really interesting. People get so angry, I mean, to the point of hissing at the screen during the deposition footage. And then the responses afterward are amazing. In Boston, I had a group of women who were abused say, âThank you so much. Nobody believed that this happened to girls as well as boys.â Which, you know, I point out pretty clearly in the movie that in Oliver OâGradyâs case, they didnât take the reports of him abusing girls as seriously, because they thought it was normal sexual curiosity. So seeing that it has that strong of an impact on people watching it makes me feel really good.
How did the project get started?
I was working as a producer at CNN, and Oliver OâGradyâs case came up as a subject in 2004. And it just seemed that no matter how much time CNN would give me, it just wasnât enough. You know, you had moms, babies, boys, girls, police and psychological reportsâthere was just so much to the story. So I got Oliverâs number from one of the plaintiffâs attorneys, and just called him. [Laughs.] You know, it was just sort of a really awkward cold call. Anyway, I introduced myself and told him I was interested in his story, and he made it clear that he didnât want to be on CNN. I said that I was a freelancer, and didnât have to do it for the network. And then he just started talking. It seemed like he had a lot to say, and hadnât said it in a while. I guess that it was time. After a few conversations, I flew out to Ireland and spent an afternoon talking with him, and he said at the end that he wanted to work with me. Initially, he didnât want to be on camera, but after a few more months of us talking, he decided that he wanted to be filmed.
How did it feel interviewing someone like him?
A pedophile? Well, Iâve interviewed a bunch of them before, actually. He was different. I guess the fact that he was free and walking around, as opposed to being behind bars, changed things. I mean, I was there as a journalist. You know, I asked him questions, and let him respond, and came back to things when I found discrepancies, and found documents to support things he was saying to make sure he was telling the truth. I was really on. [Laughs.] It was like being on caffeine the whole time. I didnât really understand the magnitude of what Iâd done until I got home. I put together a clip reel of the highlights of my trip, and seeing them that way made my stomach curl. But until then, I guess I had disassociated myself from what I was hearing.
The scene where heâs writing letters to his former victims and hoping that theyâll come visit him is really intense, and really difficult to shake. I had a hard enough time watching it on screen, let alone imagining being in the same room with him. How do you keep the level of remove through something like that?
Well, actually, I wasnât there during that. It was the last day of shooting, and I sent my cinematographer out to get some pickup shots of him stuffing envelopes. It got even weirder, actually. He started saying things to my cinematographer like, âWell, you know, if we met under different circumstances, we could be friends.â Just truly delusional, and really showing how sad his life is. You know, I think it makes the whole thing even more of a tragedy, just that heâs free and was allowed to do what he did for so long. When it came to what to put in the film, there was a line that I drew regarding his verbal indulgences. You know, you donât want to further traumatize his victims, so I made sure that he was only addressing issues that were specifically addressed in the film.
The clip you include from the deposition where OâGrady reveals that heâs been diagnosed with a disassociative disorder is really an important one, I think. It really makes the audience reconsider the things heâs been saying, and also reevaluate the severity of his crimes.
Yeah, I talked with a number of psychologists during my research, and they said that disassociative disorders were really a common trait among pedophiles. I mean, how do you live with yourself knowing that youâve done something like that? Ultimately, I think you canât help but feel a little bit of sympathy for him, because he did talk to his higher-ups in the church about his problems, early on. And then, for them to act like they had no idea, for so many years, is just impossible.
How did your initial impressions of the case, and the Church, change during the film?
I donât think I ever imagined how deep the cover-up was, and what lengths the Church would go to attempt to bury the story. What really threw me was how easy it was for them to absolve their priests of any type of guilt. I mean, you look at someone like Oliver OâGrady and think, wow, this guy has a huge ego. And then you think, well, how can he not, when he can walk into a confessional and say âBless me Father, for I have sinned. I was inappropriate with a three-year old, â and then they just basically wag their fingers at him and tell him to try not to do it again? That was the most shocking thing to me, the idea that just because youâre a priest, you can be cleared of sin.