We have started to see a cultural shift as a new generation comes up
Rogue One star Felicity Jones is playing the pioneering US Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a new film. She tells LAURA HARDING there’s an appetite for more female-driven stories in the film industry now
THERE is a scene in the new film On The Basis Of Sex in which a young woman walks up the steps of Harvard University, alone among a sea of men.
The year was 1956 and the woman was Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who went on to be only the second female justice to sit on the US Supreme Court, played in the film by British star Felicity Jones.
But for Felicity, best known for her Oscar-nominated performance in The Theory Of Everything and her role in the Star Wars film Rogue One, the scene still rang true in the present day.
“I grew up working in British television and I was often on a film set in the minority so I absolutely empathised with that feeling. Now 35, Birmingham-born Felicity got her start in the children’s TV series The Worst Witch and its spin-off Weirdsister College, before roles in the mini-series Servants, Cape Wrath and The Diary Of Anne Frank, as well as a role in Doctor Who.
Her big screen break came with the films Like Crazy and Chalet Girl and since then she has had starring roles in the second Amazing Spider-Man film, book adaptation A Monster Calls, and the Da Vinci Code sequel Inferno.
Now she’s playing Ginsburg, following the pioneering lawmaker, when she was a struggling attorney and new mother, in her fight for equal rights for men and women.
“What is interesting with this film, is how important it is that the men and women stand alongside each other encouraging that shift,” she says.
“We do need to do it together in order to make sure that we do have 50-50 in these situations.”
While Ginsburg has become increasingly famous in the broader culture in recent years and a documentary about her was even nominated for an Oscar this year, Felicity knew very little about her when she read the script.
“I initially heard about her because my mother was listening to a radio programme about her and she just said ‘I’ve been hearing about this woman, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who sounds extraordinary’, and then a few months later I was sent the screenplay and it was all about her.
“And, true to my mother’s word, she is indeed extraordinary and I read it really quickly.
“I loved her determination and tenacity and how she was constantly being told ‘no’ and pushed against that, and how she achieved what she has is phenomenal.
“Despite being 85 years old, there is nothing stereotypical about her in terms of the way she approaches life.
“She is phenomenally strong minded, unafraid to give her opinion and she has stuck by her beliefs from the beginning in a way that makes you look at the contemporary landscape. Not many of our leaders are doing that.
“She constantly finds herself in a situation where she is having to stand up for the truth and for things she believes with a lack of fear.”
Watching the film, it seems Bader Ginsburg’s battle for equality is a precursor to the struggle for gender balance in the entertainment industry, where male directors still greatly outnumber female and stories about men are still considered more bankable than those about women. “I think what we are starting to see is a shift in the culture of film-making,” Felicity says, “particularly in this post-Harvey Weinstein landscape. “I think we are in a much more optimistic landscape. There was obviously a lot of abuse within the industry and that has been exposed and so we are now in an opportunity where we can make new rules and set a different tone.
“I feel as though the set life, the culture of working on a film set or a television set has to shift.
“It’s very hard for both men and women who have families because the working life isn’t conducive to that and we have to see some of these changes start to have an effect, which will then have a knock-on effect that will encourage more women into the industry.”
It is perhaps not a coincidence that biopics about notable men are 10 a penny, while many true stories of women, no matter how extraordinary, are still largely untold.
This might explain how Bader Ginsburg got to 85 before a film was made about her. “I think we have started to see a cultural shift as we start to see a new generation coming up,” Felicity says thoughtfully.
“I think it was a very old-fashioned industry and we are starting to see that changing and that old world is crumbling with it, in a very exciting way. It’s bringing to the fore all sorts of new stories and also the explosion of television is helping with that.
“It is a medium where we can explore more complex stories, because sometimes cinema has to be quite old-fashioned in its storytelling because you only have a limited amount of time.
“All of these things coming together are creating a much better landscape.
“There is more listening now too. As we have seen there is an appetite for female-driven stories but fundamentally it’s all about the quality of the stories, that’s the thing I’m always attracted to.
“What is this film? What is this television programme? What is it saying in the world? That is the thing that I’ve always been guided by, whether you are doing a large part or a small part, that is what is deeply important to me.” On The Basis Of Sex is out in UK cinemas now.