She was refreshingly candid; refreshingly approachable. When you are with her — incredibly kind, generous, open — in a way not the qualities you expect of somebody who’s responsible for a regime that had such a history. That was a paradox that I was interested in. To be honest, in the beginning I thought it was going to be a redemption story for her. She was so appealing and kind-hearted that I thought maybe she would distance herself from the ills of the Marcos regime. There was also something about her as a woman in power that I was interested in. I’ve done a lot of work about gender and she was this powerful woman at a time when it was unusual, and she was on the world stage. In some ways she came to it from some vulnerability as an orphan. I felt like she kind of in a way threw herself into Marcos’ arms at a vulnerable time and that maybe she would at her advanced stage in life say, “I’ve reflected and don’t agree with some of those things.” Of course, it was just the opposite. She’s sticking to the story, and defending it. They all were. That was one of the first revelations for me about how to approach the story. Even when I first interviewed Bongbong and he was Western-educated and smart and reflective, in his office, he had all these pictures of the palace and of his parents. I was surprised that he felt so comfortable aligning himself with his dad’s regime when he had been kicked out and accused of stealing $10 billion.