- 9 minutes ago
'Lost Women of Alaska' narrator and executive producer Octavia Spencer talks about the three-part series, which discusses the murders of two Alaskan Native women, Kathleen Jo Henry and Veronica Abouchuk, at the hands of serial killer Brian Steven Smith, during a THR Presents Q&A powered by Vision Media.
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00:05Hello, and welcome to THR Presents Lost Women of Alaska. I'm Brandi Victorian, Deputy Awards
00:10Editor for The Hollywood Reporter, and I'm joined by Executive Producer and Narrator
00:14of Lost Women, Octavia Spencer. Hello, thank you so much for being here.
00:19Thank you for having me, Brandi.
00:21Absolutely. Well, I want to start, you know, this is the second season of the Lost Women
00:26series. I'm curious, you know, how was it decided to center the stories of Indigenous women
00:31after Season 1's Lost Women of Highway 20? Well, we always try to, sadly, spread the love because
00:42women have all been as adversely affected through crime, and so we knew that we would make our way
00:52around until we touched every group. But we started here in Alaska because of one of the
01:00filmmakers, well, the filmmaker, Christina Douglas, is also an Indigenous woman, and it just so
01:10happened that the perpetrator was on trial, was going to be on trial. So it aligned that we could
01:18get her there to get footage if we needed it, and we got a lot of footage. But we decided
01:29to center the
01:31narrative around the women and not the perpetrator, because the perpetrator, that's one of the reasons
01:39they do it, so that their names will live in infamy. And we thought we wanted to help restore the
01:48voice
01:48voices of those women who were victimized. So that's in a very verbose way to answer that question,
01:59but that's how we got there. You know, and also, right, you know, from the beginning, the series
02:02tells us, you know, that missing women in Alaska, you know, is disproportionate, you know, to the
02:07populations. I think it was 1,300, you know, missing women cases, 100 only being actively worked on.
02:13And so I'm watching, I'm thinking, how do I not know anything about this? I'm curious,
02:18did you kind of have any knowledge of what was going on in Alaska, you know, prior to working
02:22on this project?
02:23I don't think you have to be an Alaskan to know, you know, as a Black woman, I know that
02:30our stories here are not prioritized. So it was not shocking, sadly, that, to me, that these
02:42Indigenous women were going missing at alarming rates. And it's a systemic failure within the
02:52culture to disregard people who are Black and brown. So it sadly wasn't shocking to me.
03:04Okay. You know, kind of to that point, you know, I feel like there's this clear narrative of,
03:09you know, believe women. And it's also, you know, women saving other women. And it's very
03:13scary to know, you know, if Valerie Caesar hadn't stolen Brian, you know, Stephen Smith's phone
03:18and turned it in, you know, he may have never been captured. And so just the courage of the
03:23women in this series really struck me. And I was curious, you know, was it difficult to get people
03:27to talk for the project, you know, like Alicia's daughter or even, you know, Valerie and other
03:33participants? There is always hesitance. But they also understood that their loved ones' voices
03:43deserve to be heard, and their stories deserve to be told. So, but there is still a lot of pain
03:50there,
03:50because we use the word closure. And I think it's some clinical word that someone
03:58used to help people carry on with their lives. But I think it's a hard thing to do to get
04:10to that
04:10point to where there is closure. So I'm grateful that all parties involved, we had, we have a lot of
04:18heroes in this story. And they're everyday heroes, people whose family members went missing. And then,
04:28you know, Valerie could have also become a victim herself. So and when I watched the footage,
04:37and I knew what she was doing, it just, it made me pray for her, but also, you know, for
04:46all the
04:46other women who find themselves in that position. Yeah, for sure. And I also was surprised by
04:53Stephanie, you know, Brian's former partner, also kind of sharing her story. What did you think about,
04:58you know, her contribution? Listen, I think Stephanie, I think Valerie, again, I think they're,
05:08they're all heroic. And Stephanie gave us a perspective that we didn't have at all, because she had
05:16intimate knowledge of this man. And I think it also gave us an idea of how he changed the masks
05:26in the world, you know, the person that he was with his, the women he victimized was very different
05:35from the man that she knew. So it was very interesting perspective. And then, and then he showed her,
05:44you know, his real self, you know, who he was at his core. So it was kind of, you know.
05:50Yeah, disturbing, which I also wanted to talk about. Yeah, his interrogation footage as well. I just
05:59like the narcissism and the cavalier, you know, attitude toward what was going on. You know,
06:04what did you think when you saw that footage? And even later, his conversation with Amber?
06:09Listen, I hate to say that I, I, I see all of this, I watch a lot of, of true
06:19crime. And it is a common
06:22denominator character trait. And with the sociopaths and the psychopaths and the malignant narcissism.
06:29Um, I mean, it's one of the reasons why I love John Douglas, um, who started the behavioral science
06:35unit. Um, and for those of us who are followers of that, I mean, nothing that he did was out
06:41of
06:41character. Uh, it was, it was literally, you, you could take the textbook and he, you just check
06:50him off. Yep. Malignant narcissists. Yep. Yeah. It's women. Yeah.
06:56Absolutely. Um, you know, and in the third episode, you know, we later see, you know,
07:00one of the detectives kind of takes offense to this insinuation of NHI, the no humans involved,
07:06you know, designation, which it said, you know, offers officers sort of give to marginalized women
07:11that absolves them of the need to investigate their cases. I'm curious, you know, what you think
07:16about Alaska PD's kind of handling of missing and murdered indigenous people?
07:20Well, again, I, I think, first of all, to have Christina Douglas as our filmmaker, um,
07:30as a black woman, I definitely, you know, took offense, uh, but to have a director who is also
07:37indigenous, um, to highlight that in the storytelling, um, so that people can understand
07:45exactly what it's like to walk through life, um, as a person of color and, uh, as an indigenous woman
07:55to be invisible to society or society is in, you are, your pain is invisible to society. That is,
08:03you know, it's heartbreaking, but it is something that we can change by continually calling it out.
08:11And, um, you know, amplifying these stories is our duty. Uh, these women had lives, they have loved
08:22ones and they are human and they were human. We are human and our children, our family members, our loved
08:31ones. Uh, their stories deserve to be told. They deserve to be investigated. Um, and, and, and, and then
08:42to, uh, uh, the same degree, they disregard, uh, sex workers as people who deserve it. So if the sex
08:51workers are people who deserve it, what about the, the, the men who frequent the sex workers? So if we're
08:57going to talk about who's deserving of humanity, then we have to put everybody at, you know, equally,
09:04we have to measure everyone. Yeah, absolutely. Um, and I wondered too, if you could talk just a
09:09little bit about timeline, because you mentioned, you know, you knew there would be a trial, um,
09:13happening in this case. And I know for me, when I watched, you know, I, I almost anticipated
09:19disappointment, you know, with the, you know, with his case and will he be found guilty. But, um, you know,
09:25when did you kind of start working on this project? What was it like kind of capturing,
09:29I guess, in real time as a trial was going on? Uh, well, we, so my, my, my timeline is
09:36very blurry
09:36because I go from when, when we're not on, uh, this I'm on to the scripted. So, uh, we started,
09:47um, a little hummingbird is outside my window saying hello. Oh, might be someone that we're talking
09:53about. Yeah. Uh, that's the way I see it. Um, uh, so, uh, I'm sorry. What was I saying? Uh,
10:02we were in production, actually, no, we were in post, um,
10:13mid-year last year. So that it would have been the summer before, like the summer before, um,
10:19um, oh my God, see it all just, it's the timeline is just one, like yesterday is what I would
10:26say to
10:26you. Um, but, but I think, um, all parties involved, um, everyone at, uh, Discovery, uh, and, um, uh,
10:36Orit and October Films, we were all excited about needing to, uh, get the filmmakers on the ground.
10:46And we, we did get a lot of, a lot of footage that we could probably have done a whole,
10:52um, uh,
10:53another episode, um, covering the, the trial, but then that would have made it more about him.
10:59And we would have ended more, um, uh, discussing him. And I, I think this, the less we say his
11:07name
11:07and the more we say the names of the victims and it's more restorative of their voices, but we,
11:15we did understand the importance of being down there because there are other things that we
11:20were able to glean from the investigation that we could read through, um, the narrative of the story.
11:27Yeah. And I, um, just in my preparation, I was looking at, you know, like the YouTube trailer
11:32and things like that. And I saw so many just responses saying, thank you, you know, thank you
11:36for shedding a light on what we're dealing with. You know, what response have you personally kind
11:40of seen from the indigenous community? Anything that stands out, you know, to you?
11:44Absolutely. I love that the indigenous community refused to let these stories die.
11:49I love that they banded together and, uh, were the first, uh, um, voices that we heard, that
11:59we heard that we, we need to do this. We need to take up this story and these stories. And
12:06through our efforts, um, we're able to, uh, get some resolution. Um, but there's, there's
12:12been nothing but immense, uh, gratitude and it's sad that it, it, it came to, uh, this,
12:22that, that, you know, a docu-series had to be done. Um, and, and, uh, that these women
12:28had to keep showing up at the police station to say, our, our loved ones are missing. They
12:35need to be investigated. It's sad that those, um, uh, that that's the route that had to be
12:42taken, but they've been, the indigenous community has been nothing but brave, um, uh, resilient
12:49and, uh, vocal and, and their gratitude. Um, you know, and as you mentioned, you know,
12:55closure is, is never kind of never really happens with these cases. Um, you know, and, and right
13:00at the end, we're sort of left with more questions as, you know, the end credits say, you know,
13:04he's still being investigated, you know, possibly for more crimes in Alaska, possibly even in South
13:09Africa. Um, you know, have there been any updates, you know, since his project or anything, you
13:14know? I, I, I'm sure there have been, but I, I, what, what's interesting is, and I'll, I'll,
13:22I'll, I'll just put it to you this way without having concrete, um, evidence, you don't just
13:27start, uh, uh, you don't just start, um, you don't, these aren't his first victims. Uh, he was too
13:37good at it, um, and had his, uh, modus operandi. And so he just went to, um, Alaska because it
13:47was a broader playing field. Um, and that I am sure, but of course I can, the same way
13:55that they're not investigating, uh, or they weren't, um, vigorously investigating the indigenous
14:02women, I can almost assure you that his victims were black and aren't being, um, as, uh, rigorously,
14:11uh, investigated either. So it'll, it'll be interesting to see.
14:16Yeah. And I feel like maybe you're on a point of hope to him also, you know, was glad to
14:21see
14:21Amber's push, um, for Kathleen's law, which, you know, to instill criminal consequences, you
14:27know, for failure to report a murder. Can you talk a little bit about her efforts and has
14:31there been any progress the year as well? Um, I, I listen every time that we can get those
14:36types of laws on the books, because in my mind, the men, there were, there were other participants
14:44that we could obviously see that, you know, they weren't doing things for each other. Um,
14:50and, and now being, this is the second installment of lost women. It's a, it's a repeated pattern,
14:57uh, that, that they, the men who are involved are not the ones who come forward, or even those who
15:05aren't involved, who, who see something aren't necessarily the ones who come forward. So, uh,
15:11to compel, uh, people, uh, because if your name comes up in an investigation and you knew something
15:17and didn't come forward with information, I think it's a wonderful thing that, um, uh, that she
15:25is, is, uh, so vigorously out there, um, doing this not only for her loved ones, but for all the
15:33other women that we've lost. And there are so many. Yeah. And just her bravery to even confront him,
15:40you know, as well. Yeah. Yeah. Um, you know, well, sort of generally, you know, as you talked
15:45about, you are a big, you know, true crime, you know, watcher. I am as well. Um, you know,
15:50and, you know, the series can be criticized for being sensationalizing or, you know, glamorizing
15:54murders. Can you talk about, you know, just what sets lost women apart as a series?
15:59I see. I, we don't see this as entertainment. We, I don't watch, uh, true crime, uh, for entertainment. I,
16:09I watch it to gain knowledge and to, to see if I'm a person who, if I've seen something like
16:17I, I want to be responsible and report it. Um, so we don't frame our shows for, um, entertainment,
16:27not, not lost women, um, threads maybe, you know, that it's interesting to, to see how the, um, uh,
16:36former FBI, uh, agents actually worked on their, their cases, but lost women for us is, um,
16:45is one about being restorative of lives and voices and still, you know, bringing some resolution,
16:53hopefully to families. So it's, it's never been, um, it's not that we sensationalize. It's not that we
17:02glamorize crime against women. Um, I find it abhorrent. I find it abhorrent that when a woman or a child,
17:13um, uh, reports a crime that it's not looked into immediately. Uh, and then when we, we could have
17:24stopped, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, soon to be killer, you know, because they, they always, um, escalate,
17:33um, if they're not stopped, uh, with a, you know, uh, uh, sexual assault, they then get braver and they,
17:42they go out and, and act out their fantasies. So for me, lost women is about empowering all women
17:51women and, uh, uh, empowering young girls and, uh, to, to be a part of a community that helps each
17:59other, that we see each other, that we report, um, and that we fight like, um, for, for laws that
18:07protect us. So, um, thank you for raising that question because, um, this is a passion of mine,
18:15uh, but not for entertainment, for justice, for these, for these victims.
18:21Yes. And thank you, you know, for your work, um, you know, which is also, you know, you've received
18:27your third Emmy nomination, you know, for this project, second for narration, you know,
18:31and for the Lost Women series, you know, what does it mean to you to just have this, you know,
18:35also recognized by the Television Academy?
18:37You know, uh, in a, in a, uh, it's wonderful, uh, uh, because it, it just shines a light and
18:46amplifies the story of the Lost Women of Alaska. I always joke and say, is my voice the right one,
18:55uh, to, to be, um, narrating their stories, but it's, it's basically the visibility is something
19:05that I can give, uh, with, with, with my name. Um, and the voice is, is, I, I'm compelled to
19:14use it
19:15for, for, for good and to tell these women's stories because they can no longer tell their
19:22own stories. So, um, you know, it's humbling. It's very, very humbling. And, and it's not for me.
19:32I see this as a nomination for the Lost Women of, uh, Alaska.
19:39Yeah. Well, you know, lastly, this is a series, you know, you almost don't want to continue because
19:45it means, you know, more women are being harmed, you know, I'm missing, but I'm curious, you know,
19:49have you begun discussions about a potential third season and, you know, what stories you might be
19:53looking at? Uh, we, we have, sadly, there's a plethora, um, and we don't want to repeat
20:01communities. Um, needless to say that there are so many places we can go. So, um, and, uh, suffice it
20:12to say that of course we are looking to see, um, uh, where we could go next and there are
20:20many places to
20:20go next. Well, thank you so much for taking your time. Thank you for using your visibility in this
20:27way. Um, it was truly a pleasure, um, to have you here with us for THR Presents. Thank you so
20:32much.
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