Tori Amos Discusses Netflix Film 'Audrie & Daisy' | MTV News

Meredith Graves and Tori Amos discuss rape culture and the new Netflix documentary ‘Audrie & Daisy’.

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Good afternoon friends.

My name is Meredith Graves,
I am of MTV News,

and I’m sitting here
with one of my literal

actual all-time heroes,

Tori Amos.
>> Thank you!

>> I can’t believe you’re here,
and we have so much to talk about.

First and foremost,
your work on the Netflix

original documentary ‘Audrie
and Daisy’,

and then something really
tremendous and special,

but we’ll talk
about the film first.

>> Yes.

>> This guy started texting me.

It was kinda like,
Oh older boys wanna hang out with us?

I think I was drunk.

The boys were pretty persistent.

Then I guess things got worse.

>> It’s good to let the audience know
that this film is incredibly tragic.

It’s also at times wildly uplifting

and makes you want to raise
or join an army

or your own to combat
the pervasiveness of rape culture.

So to get started, what do you
think the strongest message

is that survivors
of sexual assault can take away

from the film and from Daisy’s story?

>> The questions about the justice
system and the questions

about us as a community,

how do we fail our teenagers
when we turn the other way?

Daisy talks about silence:

the silence of friends,
the silence of the community.

People not wanting to get involved

because they were afraid
they could lose their jobs.

And it divides people, this issue,

because we don’t always talk

to the teenagers
about responsibility and consequences

and that your life changes forever.

>> I have to know, the first time
you saw the film, how did you feel?

>> Raw. Unable to move.

I was aware of Emily
Doe and the Stanford attack,

so the idea

that this has been happening
in our universities,

that is happening in our high schools
and now our middle schools,

and it was a moment
where I had to realize

that this is, um,
beyond an epidemic —

it’s endemic.

It’s in our country,
it’s in our culture,

and it’s something that
sometimes grown-ups

don’t want to talk about,

and when I say grown-up I mean over 21.

You don’t want to talk about it,
you put your head in the sand

and say, “Push the issue out there,

it’s not going to happen to my sister

or my teenager or me,”

and yet it’s happening
and it’s not stopping.

>> What do you think
parents can do to gain

a greater understanding of the crisis
happening among young women?

The rape epidemic, rape culture?

>> Well I think that this film,

it’s a tough watch
but it’s a must watch,

and it’s something that teenagers need

to see and adolescents need to see it

because the boys in Audrie’s case,

her story

is that she was sexually assaulted

and then they drew on her with marker

all over her body and wrote with arrows

what they did all over her body

and they took photographs

and they put it up online,

and that is when the shaming,

from girls as well, the shaming.

So the perpetrators were boys,

and these are teenagers,
these are teenage—

they’re kids, and they were friends.

So this is something the over-21s,

this is a wake-up call,
this is a call to arms,

and Audrie,

within several days,

eight days, killed herself.

Daisy is 18 now;

she tried to commit
suicide three times,

but she has stepped
into a place of survivor

and she’s an activist

and she is building an army,

an army of teenagers
to talk about this.

>> What are the most positive
results of the film to you?

>> To see Daisy becoming a tattoo artist

is, um, it’s something to watch.

The film shows you that,
and she’s reclaiming her body.

She is creating art on her canvas,

and to address this very directly

is something I encourage
everybody to check out Daisy

and become part of her army.

I’m part of Daisy’s army.

>> See the muscle?

All she had to do is raise her hand
and here we are.

Are you planning
on getting tattooed by Daisy?

>> I am.
>> Do you have— you have tattoos?

Right? You do? Yes? No?

>> Oh, I have—
I’m one of those people:

the lower back tattoo gal.

I’m one of those people. I know.

>> That’s like the one place
I don’t have one, so we’re even.

What do you think the recent prevalence

of major national
headline-making rape cases

has done for the way our culture looks
at rape in the common consciousness?

Do you feel like it
has changed anything?

>> People are waking up.

There are activists now that are saying,

“This conversation
has to be front and center,”

because the issue isn’t going away.

So we have to—

America, we have to deal with this.

These are our kids
disrespecting our kids,

and we have to look at them
all as our kids.

We’re back to the conversation
is when you look away,

you don’t do something,

you are doing something.

You’re fingerprints are on that, okay?

So we’re not talking
in our school systems,

we’re not really talking—

empowering teachers to have
the conversation, tough conversation,

and now grown-ups,
whether a parent or not,

anybody over 21,
that is legal,

needs to get involved
in this conversation

because the world has gone mad.

This is madness.

>> It’s madness that
for sure takes the form

of the most extremely pervasive

and destabilizing

force of violence
against young women

and young people in general
and it is terrifying,

and for people who want
to join Daisy’s army,

who want to join you,

how did you get involved
with the Rape, Abuse,

and Incest National Network?

>> In 1994, the ladies at Atlantic,

that worked at Atlantic Records,

got me in touch with Scott Berkowitz

and we founded RAINN as a collective,

and they connected all the rape
crisis centers in America

as a hotline and they’re online now.

And the good news is that they’re there,

they’re trained,
they work in the trenches with people

when they’re in a victim stage

and try to help them to take the steps,

whether it’s—

many things, emotional,

sometimes legal to get a minor
out of that situation.

The phone number wasn’t traceable

because sometime the perpetrator
was in the home.

And so the bad news about this

is the phone doesn’t stop ringing.

If you’d asked me in 1994
once we’d started,

“In 2016, maybe the phone
won’t ring so much?”

No, the phone is ringing
and ringing and ringing.

So the good news
is that there are more advocates

that are stepping forward
out there to be supportive

and to have the discussion,

but the sadness

is that there
are more calls than ever.

>> Because at the end of the day,
it really does come down to safety,

and so much of the predatory behavior

against teenage girls
does happen on the Internet.

Now if people that are out there

watching want to get involved with RAINN

and the work that you do
or become an advocate,

volunteer their time, donate,

aside from buying
your fantastic new single,

which plays over the credits of the film,
which I believe, if I’m correct,

the benefits go to RAINN—
>> Yes.

>> —of course, how can people
get involved with the Network?

>> We are there, you can contact us.

We need volunteers, we need people.

They’re very visible on the website,
so it’s not hard to find RAINN.

>> RAINN.org to get more information
about the Rape, Abuse,

and Incest National Network
and also to volunteer.

I’m so excited that we got
to have this conversation.

>> Thank you for having me, thank you.
>> The film will be here Friday.

The 20th year reissue of ‘Boys
for Pele’ complete

with two bonus tracks,
photos from New Orleans,

and god knows what else in the future

will be out very
very shortly in November,

and in the meantime you
will continue to be amazing.

I am so glad that you came here
to be with us today!

Thank you so much.

‘Audrie & Daisy’ will be out
on Netflix this Friday,

make sure to watch it.
Thank you Tori.

>> Thank you babe, thank you.