‘THERE’S A LOT OF PRESSURE ON WOMEN’

GEMMA CHAN PLAYS A WOMAN STRUGGLING WITH EXPECTATIONS

From Channel 4’s Humans, to the internationally acclaimed comedy Crazy Rich Asians, Gemma Chan can turn her dramatic hand to anything. But she admits that improvising on I Am Hannah was ‘quite terrifying’. Nevertheless, Gemma delivers a stunning performance as 36-year-old Hannah, a woman struggling to stick to the social expectations placed on her as a woman in her mid-thirties.

Here, the actress, also 36, who is thought to be dating Mamma Mia star Dominic Cooper, explains why she wanted to share this story…

She’s very good at her job, but she’s not fulfilled by it. She’s not in a relationship when we meet her. She’s trying to find meaning in her life and people have different ideas about that meaning. Most of her female friends have coupled off or have kids and she’s really questioning everything about that side of things.

I wanted to tell a story about a woman struggling with expectation. I’ve had conversations with female friends and it’s based on some of those. There’s a lot of pressure on women to be mothers; what it means to be a mother, what it means to be a woman if you don’t want to be or can’t be a mother.

I think it’s crazy how, as a woman, when you’re a teenager or in your twenties, it’s drilled into you that getting pregnant is the worst thing that could happen. And then suddenly when you hit your mid-thirties, the other message is that you’re running out of time, your biological clock is ticking… You have, essentially, a five-year period when you’re supposed to meet the right person, settle down and start a family. And I think that can be quite unrealistic.

Tell us about your character… Why did you want to tell this story? What’s your own experience of this? Above: ‘I wanted to tell a story about a woman struggling with expectation,’ Gemma says of I Am Hannah (left)