‘The culture of working on a film set or a television set has to shift’

Showbusiness can learn from Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the inspiring subject of her new movie, Felicity Jones tells Laura Harding

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 woman was Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who went on to be the second ever female justice to sit on the US Supreme Court, played in the film by British star Felicity Jones, and the year was 1956.

But for Jones, who is best known for her role in the Star Wars film Rogue One and her Oscar-nominated turn in The Theory Of Everything, the scene still rang true in the present day.

“Absolutely,” she says emphatically. “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.

“And what we need to see is that needs to shift.”

Now 35, Birminghamborn Jones 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 turn 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 Spiderman film, book adaptation A Monster Calls, and the Da Vinci Code sequel Inferno, not to mention Rogue One and The Theory Of Everything.

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.

“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, Jones knew very little

0 Felicity Jones as Ruth Bader Ginsburg in On The Basis Of Sex

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 as true to my mother’s word, she is indeed extraordinary and I just read it really quickly.

“I loved her determination and her tenacity and how she was constantly being told ‘no’ and how she pushed against that, and how she has achieved what she has achieved 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, she is unafraid of her opinion and she has stuck by her beliefs from the very beginning in a way that 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 stand up 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,” Jones says, “particularly in this postharvey Weinstein landscape that we find ourselves in.

“I think we are in a much more optimistic landscape. I think 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 we can set a different tone.

“I feel as though the set life, the culture of working on a film set or a television set, that has to shift.”

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 as we have seen there is an appetite for female-driven stories but fundamentally it’s all about the quality of the stories, that is the thing that 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.”

“She constantly finds herself in a situation where she is having to stand up for the truth and stand up for things she believes with a lack of fear”

● On The Basis Of Sex is out in UK cinemas now