Catholic Church Faces Heat In 'Spotlight'

“Spotlight” may be a film drawn from previous events, but it is not a film about the past—although it seems that with every screening at least one person affected by the Catholic Church’s horrific cycles of child abuse comes out of the woodwork with a tale to tell.

On Saturday night at Guild Hall in East Hampton, it was—unexpectedly—David Nugent, artistic director of the Hamptons International Film Festival, which featured the drama as one of this year’s Centerpiece Films.

“The high school that is referenced is Cheverus, in Maine—where one of the priests, James Talbot, is transferred to after being caught in Boston—was my high school,” Mr. Nugent said. “He was my soccer coach and my English teacher. I didn’t know about all of this, obviously.”

Screenwriters Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy, who also directed the film, said they couldn’t grasp the scale and scope of the problem until they began digging—reading the letters and testimonies from survivors, as well as the articles written by the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team investigating the allegations of child molestation in the Catholic Church, a Pulitzer Prize-winning story that uncovered a massive web of pedophilia and systemic cover-ups worldwide.

“What is important to know is this is still going on,” Mr. McCarthy said. “It’s happening. [This film is about] when the story broke, and it’s still being dealt with.”

Nearly every character the audience meets in the film was consulted in real life, including Boston Globe Deputy Managing Editor Ben Bradlee Jr., portrayed by John Slattery. As soon as he accepted the role over the phone—he happened to be in Amagansett at the time— the “Mad Men” actor was on his way to Boston to meet him for lunch the next day.

“He was completely open and supportive and answered any stupid question—personal or professional—that I had from the beginning,” Mr. Slattery recalled. “He came [on set] to Toronto for three or four days. One of someone else’s real-life counterparts was coming to the set and said, ‘Oh, I’m a little nervous. Doesn’t it make you nervous that he’s standing over there, watching the monitor?’ He’d been standing there for a day and a half, and I hadn’t even thought about it. That’s just how supportive he was.”

The crew filmed primarily in Boston, Mr. McCarthy said, laughing as he recalled their first night on location, which happened to be during a live game in Fenway Park. “I don’t advise that for any filmmakers,” he said. “It was a wonderful shit show, just trying to control a stadium of Bostonians in a year the Red Sox weren’t having a good season. It was a general atmosphere of anger.”

It was also an incredible night that didn’t happen as planned, he said, as they were scheduled to shoot the Red Sox-Yankees game. But two weeks prior, the director got word that his offer had been rejected by the New York team. “I’m a lifelong Yankee fan, so that was painful to me,” he said. “They felt like it was unsuitable material for the Yankees organization.”

The audience collectively groaned.

“Yes, I felt the same way,” Mr. McCarthy said. “What was funny about it was the operations manager said, ‘They advised the Red Sox organization to reconsider our involvement in it,’ and I was like, ‘That’s not good. What did you say?’ and he said, ‘Well, I told the Yankees to worry about their own organization—we are the Red Sox.’ They basically let us do whatever we wanted in the stadium that night.”

“Pretty much because the Yankees said no,” added Liev Schreiber, who portrays newly appointed Boston Globe Editor Marty Baron, a reserved, at times seemingly detached figure, though he is anything but.

“He knows how to handle conflict and he doesn’t let himself get too deeply immersed in things, embedded in things,” Mr. Schreiber said. “He’s a remarkable guy. A guy who’s spent the better part of his life trying to stay on the right side of things. That could be very uncomfortable for most of us.”

Actor Michael Cyril Creighton recently watched the film with his real-life character, a survivor who came forward and assisted with the investigation. “It was a beautiful experience,” Mr. Creighton said of the screening. “We’ve become great friends. He’s very happy.”

He is one of the lucky ones, the film emphasizes—a victim who did not lose himself to alcohol, drugs or suicide following the abuse, which is alarmingly common, the film explains. And more often than not, the offender is simply moved, not punished.

“There are 178 dioceses in the country. Thirty of them have published lists of all the priests credibly accused—which is great for those 30 dioceses,” Mr. Singer said. “That means there are 148 dioceses that have no list.”

“It’s about transparency,” Mr. McCarthy added. “Obviously, the system’s broken. And because it’s broken, it’s dangerous and continues to be dangerous.”

“I think that’s what frustrates all of us—certainly survivors and certainly people involved in that,” Mr. Singer said. “One of the things we’re asking for, on a base level, makes a lot of common sense: to ensure the safety of our children.”

On that note, Mr. Nugent opened up questions to the audience. The first man who took the microphone rose to his feet.

“Umm, I’m actually one of those guys who came forward,” he said. “So, thank you.”

“Thank you,” Mr. McCarthy said.

“I’m from Boston. They still relocate them, move them around. It’s crazy,” he said. “But thank you. Thank you.”

As he sat down, the audience applauded for him, supportive murmurs rippling throughout the theater.

“It takes a lot of courage to stand up and say that,” Mr. McCarthy said. “And it’s very important—because every time you do that, it gives someone else the courage.”