Carey Mulligan has expressed disbelief that the story of women’s rights activists in the forthcoming drama Suffragette has never been told before on the big screen, and attacked the “sexist film industry” which could not find a place for the story.
Suffragette stars Mulligan as working-class housewife Maud, who defies her husband (Ben Whishaw) and risks losing custody of her children in the struggle for universal suffrage. Meryl Streep has a small but vital role as the suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst, the co-founder of the Women’s Social and Political Union which undertook hunger strikes and advocated property destruction in the name of women’s rights in pre-first world war Britain.
Interviewed by Reader’s Digest, Mulligan said Hollywood was generally only interested in stories about men, leaving vital episodes in the lives of women “largely untold”.
“I don’t think it’s an oversight at all,” said the Westminster-born actor, 30. “I think we have a sexist film industry, and stories about women are largely untold. This is one that’s fallen by the wayside because of that. I think a lot of people have sat around tables in various production offices and decided it wasn’t financially viable.”
The Oscar-nominated star of An Education also revealed why she took an 18-month break from acting after filming 2011’s Shame, for director Steve McQueen, and 2013’s The Great Gatsby, for Baz Luhrmann.
“That was mainly because there wasn’t anything that interesting to work on,” she said. “You either make a lot of compromises and play roles you’re not very keen on, or you have to wait. I’ve been incredibly lucky in getting the jobs I’ve done, and I did enough work in the earlier part of my career to allow me to sit around for a bit. But that’s a privileged position – not many people get to do that.”
Suffragette, directed by Brick Lane’s Sarah Gavron and based on a screenplay by The Iron Lady’s Abi Morgan, is due to open the London film festival on 7 October ahead of a nationwide UK release on 12 October. The film, which hits US cinemas on limited release on 23 October, also stars Helena Bonham Carter, Anne-Marie Duff and Brendan Gleeson.
