Sally Hawkins went through a version of the awards-season experience two years ago, when she won a Golden Globe for her remarkable performance in “Happy-Go-Lucky” but was snubbed by Oscar voters. She’s back now playing the lead in Nigel Cole’s “Made in Dagenham,” the true story of a group of female workers who went on strike against Ford in an industrial British town in 1968, leading directly to a law guaranteeing equal pay for men and women.
The Sony Classics film opens in limited engagements on Friday, and Hawkins has been going to film festivals and doing the kind of promotion that’s de rigeur during awards season. But it hasn’t been easy: she’s currently co-starring on Broadway with Cherry Jones in a revival of the George Bernard Shaw play “Mrs. Warren’s Profession,” which necessitates late-night flights and crowded schedules on the one day a week she has off.
The era in which this film is set, mid-to-late '60s England, seems irresistible to filmmakers, because there was so much dramatic change happening in Britain both politically and culturally. But it wasn’t impacting everybody, or every class, at the same time.
There was so much going on in that time not just in the U.K., but globally. And so many shifts taking place. But like you say, not everybody was aware of it at the time. And even now, not many people are aware of this story, and what those women did.
If it weren’t for the women doing what they did, pushing through and making sure their voices were heard, there would have been no Equal Pay Act of 1970. Which they ironically couldn’t benefit from until 1982 – because then, like now, there were so many loopholes in place.
But yeah, there was so much going on, and it was in the nature of these women that they had to say what they had to say, and they weren’t going to shut up until they were heard and certain things were implemented. And I love the fact that his story is now being talked about on a big scale, with a film that I’m so proud to be representing.
Did you feel a particular responsibility to those women?
Yeah, I did. The ultimate compliment, which means more to me than anything else, is that the women were proud and thought that we had done them justice.
So you got to know them during the process?
I met three of the women. I wanted to meet them just for me, because it always gives you another layer to tap into. We had tea in Dagenham. I don’t know why it’s surprising to me, but it is, that they all still live in Dagenham. They’re all still friends, and they’re all still politically active as well.
They were telling me how they were going up to meet Gordon Brown at number 10 Downing St. in a few weeks time. And what also impressed me was that they weren’t particularly impressed or overwhelmed by it. And I don’t know if that’s the nature of who they were, and that they knew their own worth.
Were they impressed by the movie business coming to call?
Well, what struck me is that they don’t really suffer fools. They’re working-class women, and a few of them are still working. Their family was the most important thing in their lives, their friends, and getting what they were due.
And what I loved about them, and took away from that time with them, was that one of them said, “What we were saying was actually quite simple. It’s not a complicated thing, and why people were up in arms or didn’t really understand it was beyond us. This is what were owed, and that’s all there is to it. And we weren’t going to shut up until we were given it.”
That’s certainly the approach taken by your character in that scene near the end of the movie, when she had to plead her case in front of a hall full of mostly union men. In a sense, she’s saying, “It’s very simple, guys, and you know it.”
Yeah, yeah. Actually, it still gets me when we talk about that scene. For me, that’s the essence of what those women were. They weren’t interested in adopting political language to get their point across.
And that was their strength, actually, because they were speaking from the heart about issues that we’re still dealing with, and that you’re dealing with in the U.S.
If you get emotional just talking about that scene, what was it like filming it?
It was great. You mentioned responsibility, and I did feel the weight of responsibility at that point. That was a moment in their history that that happened, and my character was the woman who was shoved up there and saw pockets of her friends and coworkers in that sea of men, and of suits. I can still see it now. I couldn’t help but become emotional, because it taps into something profound that we still experience.
Does that emotion make it difficult to control what you’re doing as an actress?
Well, you hope that you don’t patronize, you don’t want to over-sentimentalize it, and you hope that you aren’t so taken over by the emotion that you can’t then get that point across. I think those women never were, and that’s something we always had to remember.
It’s highly emotional and highly passionate, but I think that if you are overtaken by the emotion, you can sort of alienate yourself. It’s a balance. And it was difficult to keep my own emotion in, and to remain stable and sane.
Speaking of remaining stable and sane – how are you handling flying to film festivals and coming across the country for a day of interviews on your only day off from doing a Broadway play?
It’s quite mad, but that’s the nature of the thing. I did the show last night, then got on a plane. Didn’t sleep much – the flight was delayed, as it invariably is. But it’s all right. I’ll sleep tonight.
On another plane?
Yeah. (pause) I’ll sleep tomorrow afternoon, for sure. And then I’m onstage again. (laughs) It’s insane, isn’t it? You find yourself getting overwhelmed by it all, and then you have to go, wait a minute — this is a very rare thing, and it's actually good fun as well.
