‘Notorious RBG’ film peers past her notoriety

NEW YORK — So how do you ask 85-year-old Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to let you bring video cameras into the gym to record her workout?

The answer, according to the makers of the “RBG” documentary that’s in theaters now and bound for CNN later this year, is “very meekly.”

A trainer pushing Ginsburg on the free weights provides one of the smileworthy moments in the documentary, which puts meat behind the cultural phenomenon created by the 2015 book, “Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.”

The film’s story traces her legal work advancing rights for women leading up to her 1993 elevation to the top court, and her role as a justice since.

Mixed in is the tender love story with her husband, Martin Ginsburg, who died in 2010, and rich personal touches including her friendship with the late Justice Antonin Scalia — bringing a liberal and conservative together in a way that seems alien to modern Washington.

Watching the “Notorious RBG” fame, film director Betsy West said that “we felt that many of her millennial fans didn’t know her full story.”

For the workout scene, it had been West’s job to ask if Ginsburg would allow a camera. The request was met, as was often the case, with a dramatic pause. Then came the answer: “Yes, I think that would be possible.”