When MarieClaire.com hit the Sundance Film Festival on Inauguration Day, we had one thing on our minds: the enduring power of women, and how we will never, ever be silenced—no matter who's president of this country. That's why we asked Sundance's stars how they'll use their voices this year and beyond—and more importantly, what they want to say directly to Donald Trump.
We weren't looking for inflammatory comments, controversy, or clicks. We were looking for real answers from real women, who—despite being celebrities and therefore a target of Trump—deserve to be listened to. This isn't fake news or alternative facts. This is the women of Sundance being heard.
"We have a responsibility to fight for the people who came before us and the people who are coming after us. Nobody's going to back down from that. I'm not going to back down from that," Chelsea Handler told us after leading the Women's March on Sundance. "There's too much beauty in the world to live with rancor and fear and divisiveness. There's too much goodness."
Part of that responsibility—part of never, ever backing down—is speaking up to create change. "We're not going to not say what we feel and think, and talk about the things that we care about," Charlize Theron told us. "Whether it's the environment, or our children, or reproductive health care. If this government is truly ours, the way it should be, constitutionally it's set up that way, then it's time for us to take it. And own it."
Motion by Crystal Law
