Patricia Clarkson on playing her icon Lilly Ledbetter and the political moment greeting the movie
Most are gone or out of power, their hopes of building on Ledbetter's legacy interrupted by a more fundamental fight over President Donald Trump's shake-up of civil rights institutions.
It's difficult not to flashforward to the present as the most famous of those supporters appear in interspersed documentary footage: the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former first lady Michelle Obama and former President Barack Obama, who signed the 2009 Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which strengthened the right of workers to sue for pay discrimination.
Less well-known is Jocelyn Samuels, played as a key character by Deirdre Lovejoy. Back then, Samuels was an executive at the National Women's Law Center, guiding Ledbetter through the halls of Congress as they lobbied for the law. Currently, Samuels is one of two Democratic commissioners fired by Trump from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, an unprecedented power play she is fighting in a lawsuit.
Ledbetter died in October at the age of 86. The following month, Trump's election all but dashed Democratic hopes for passage any time soon of the more comprehensive Paycheck Fairness Act, which Ledbetter championed and would, among other measures, strengthen the ability of the EEOC to investigate pay discrimination.
Patricia Clarkson, who stars as Ledbetter in 'Lilly,' doesn't shy away from the politics of the film, directed by Rachel Feldman. The Academy Award-nominee shared the red carpet with Clinton, who made a surprise appearance at the film's May 7 premier in New York City. She often recalls how her own mother, the late former Louisiana state legislator Jackie Clarkson, cried for joy when learning her daughter would play Ledbetter.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Clarkson said the politics are a salient backdrop for what people should remember most: a woman who for most of her life was an unknown working mother until an anonymous note tipped her off that her male co-workers were getting paid thousands of dollars more for the same job, and she decided to fight back.
The conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: What did you do to prepare for the role? I understand you never met Lilly Ledbetter and it that it was an intentional choice.
A: I imprint very easily with people and so I was afraid if I met Lilly, I would try to imitate her, play her. I realized that I owed her the very best of me as an actress, as a woman and a person. And the way to do that is to bring the best of you and to bring the best of yourself emotionally and physically and intellectually. And you can't do that if you are living with such an image. And Lilly is a very powerful image in my life. And so I had to kind of just bring her back to an ordinary life.
Q: Did you did you dig into her writings or her speeches?
A: I looked at a certain amount … But I wanted her emotional life ever-present … That's what's important because change is hard and people suffer to fight injustice …. I didn't care about mannerisms. I just wanted her emotional strife and struggle to be present.
Q: It must have been hard to anticipate how different the political moment would be when the movie was released.
A: I literally and figuratively had dreams of being on a press tour with Lilly. It was going to be the highlight of my life to be with this remarkable human being … but then she passed. But maybe right now, is the greatest time for this film because it's reminding people that there can be accomplishments.
Q: Is it a more difficult political climate for a film like this?
A: I know the Democrats embraced her but let me tell you something: Lilly was not really a deeply political person, and that's something I held strong to … And yeah, she spoke at the (Democratic National Convention) but she would have spoken at the (Republican National Convention) if she has been asked. Equal pay is equal pay. Whether you are North, South, East, West, whether you were red, blue or purple. She didn't care.
Q: You also recently starred in 'She Said,' the 2022 film about the New York Times' uncovering of the sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein. What are the parallels with 'Lilly'?
Winnipeg Jets Game Days
On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop.
A: It's all of a piece. It's a mindset of certain men we have had to work with, either in Hollywood or in the workforce … Hollywood's come a long way because I've been in it since 1985, and I've spoken about this. We used to meet male producers and directors in hotel rooms and actors in hotel rooms, and we all thought that was fine. We were paid less throughout. I was paid less throughout the whole beginning of my career.
Q: If there's one thing that you want the audience to take away about Lilly, what would it be?
A: She got back up, and you should be a proud American when you watch her.
_______
The Associated Press' women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
4 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Australia selects Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for $6.5B warship deal
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Australia said Tuesday it accepted a Japanese company's bid for a lucrative and hotly contested contract to build Australian warships, expected to be worth 10 billion Australian dollars ($6.5 billion). Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Mogami-class frigate won the deal over rival Germany's MEKO A-200 from Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems. Japan's government lobbied heavily for the deal after missing out on Australia's submarines contract to a French company in 2016. 'This is clearly the biggest defense industry agreement that will ever have been struck between Japan and Australia,' Defense Minister Richard Marles told reporters when he announced the deal Tuesday. 'In fact, it's really one of the biggest defense exports that Japan has ever engaged in.' The fleet of 11 naval vessels will replace Australia's ageing fleet of ANZAC-class ships. Three of the frigates will be built in Japan, with the first scheduled to be operational Australia in 2030, and the remaining eight due for construction in Australia. Australian news outlets reported that the German company's bid had emphasized their vessel's cheaper price and their greater experience building ships abroad. But Pat Conroy, Australia's Minister for Defense Industry, said the Mogami-class frigate was a 'clear winner' when assessed by 'cost, capability and meeting our schedule of delivery.' The vessels have a range of up to 10,000 nautical miles (18,520 kilometers) and 32 vertical launch cells capable of launching long-range missiles. The frigates can operate with a crew of 90, compared to the 170 needed to operate the ANZAC-class ships. Mitsubishi's win was a boon for Japan's defense industry, which has not built naval vessels abroad before. Japan, whose only treaty ally is the United States, considers Australia a semi-ally and has increasingly sought to deepen bilateral military cooperation amid ongoing regional tensions in the disputed South China Sea. 'We welcome the decision by the Australian government as a major step to further elevate Japan's national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,' Japan's Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said Tuesday. Nakatani said co-developing the frigate will allow the two countries to train and operate with the same equipment and further improve operability and efficiency. Japan set up a joint taskforce of government and industry in an effort to win the bid. Australian officials said work on a binding commercial contract with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and the government of Japan would now begin, with a finalized agreement expected in 2026. They did not say how much each ship would cost or confirm a total figure for the package, citing ongoing negotiations. But Conroy said the government had allowed AU$10 billion for the project over the next 10 years. It forms part of the AU$55 billion that Australia has budgeted for the navy's entire surface combatant fleet during the same period. —- Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed from Tokyo.
Winnipeg Free Press
4 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
How Russia reins in the internet by blocking websites and isolating it from the rest of the world
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — YouTube videos that won't load. A visit to a popular independent media website that produces only a blank page. Cellphone internet connections that are down for hours or days. Going online in Russia can be frustrating, complicated and even dangerous. It's not a network glitch but a deliberate, multipronged and long-term effort by authorities to bring the internet under the Kremlin's full control. Authorities adopted restrictive laws and banned websites and platforms that won't comply. Technology has been perfected to monitor and manipulate online traffic. While it's still possible to circumvent restrictions by using virtual private network apps, those are routinely blocked, too. Authorities further restricted internet access this summer with widespread shutdowns of cellphone internet connections and adopting a law punishing users for searching for content they deem illicit. They also are threatening to go after the popular WhatsApp platform while rolling out a new 'national' messenger that's widely expected to be heavily monitored. President Vladimir Putin urged the government to 'stifle' foreign internet services and ordered officials to assemble a list of platforms from 'unfriendly' states that should be restricted. Experts and rights advocates told The Associated Press that the scale and effectiveness of the restrictions are alarming. Authorities seem more adept at it now, compared with previous, largely futile efforts to restrict online activities, and they're edging closer to isolating the internet in Russia. Human Rights Watch researcher Anastasiia Kruope describes Moscow's approach to reining in the internet as 'death by a thousand cuts.' 'Bit by bit, you're trying to come to a point where everything is controlled.' Censorship after 2011-12 protests Kremlin efforts to control what Russians do, read or say online dates to 2011-12, when the internet was used to challenge authority. Independent media outlets bloomed, and anti-government demonstrations that were coordinated online erupted after disputed parliamentary elections and Putin's decision to run again for president. Russia began adopting regulations tightening internet controls. Some blocked websites; others required providers to store call records and messages, sharing it with security services if needed, and install equipment allowing authorities to control and cut off traffic. Companies like Google or Facebook were pressured to store user data on Russian servers, to no avail, and plans were announced for a 'sovereign internet' that could be cut off from the rest of the world. Russia's popular Facebook-like social media platform VK, founded by Pavel Durov long before he launched the Telegram messenger, came under the control of Kremlin-friendly companies. Russia tried to block Telegram between 2018-20 but failed. Prosecutions for social media posts and comments became common, showing that authorities were closely watching the online space. Still, experts had dismissed Kremlin efforts to rein in the internet as futile, arguing Russia was far from building something akin to China's 'Great Firewall,' which Beijing uses to block foreign websites. Ukraine invasion triggers crackdown After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the government blocked major social media like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, as well as Signal and a few other messaging apps. VPNs also were targeted, making it harder to reach restricted websites. YouTube access was disrupted last summer in what experts called deliberate throttling by authorities. The Kremlin blamed YouTube owner Google for not maintaining its hardware in Russia. The platform has been wildly popular in Russia, both for entertainment and for voices critical of the Kremlin, like the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Cloudflare, an internet infrastructure provider, said in June that websites using its services were being throttled in Russia. Independent news site Mediazona reported that several other popular Western hosting providers also are being inhibited. Cyber lawyer Sarkis Darbinyan, founder of Russian internet freedom group Roskomsvoboda, said authorities have been trying to push businesses to migrate to Russian hosting providers that can be controlled. He estimates about half of all Russian websites are powered by foreign hosting and infrastructure providers, many offering better quality and price than domestic equivalents. A 'huge number' of global websites and platforms use those providers, he said, so cutting them off means those websites 'automatically become inaccessible' in Russia too. Another concerning trend is the consolidation of Russia's internet providers and companies that manage IP addresses, according to a July 30 Human Rights Watch report. Last year, authorities raised the cost of obtaining an internet provider license from 7,500 rubles (about $90) to 1 million rubles (over $12,300), and state data shows that more than half of all IP addresses in Russia are managed by seven large companies, with Rostelecom, Russia's state telephone and internet giant, accounting for 25%. The Kremlin is striving 'to control the internet space in Russia, and to censor things, to manipulate the traffic,' said HRW's Kruope. Criminalizing 'extremist' searches A new Russian law criminalized online searches for broadly defined 'extremist' materials. That could include LGBTQ+ content, opposition groups, some songs by performers critical of the Kremlin — and Navalny's memoir, which was designated as extremist last week. Right advocates say it's a step toward punishing consumers — not just providers — like in Belarus, where people are routinely fined or jailed for reading or following certain independent media outlets. Stanislav Seleznev, cyber security expert and lawyer with the Net Freedom rights group, doesn't expect ubiquitous prosecutions, since tracking individual online searches in a country of 146 million remains a tall order. But even a limited number of cases could scare many from restricted content, he said. Another major step could be blocking WhatsApp, which monitoring service Mediascope said had over 97 million monthly users in April. WhatsApp 'should prepare to leave the Russian market,' said lawmaker Anton Gorelkin, and a new 'national' messenger, MAX, developed by social media company VK, would take its place. Telegram, another popular messenger, probably won't be restricted, he said. MAX, promoted as a one-stop shop for messaging, online government services, making payments and more, was rolled out for beta tests but has yet to attract a wide following. Over 2 million people registered by July, the Tass news agency reported. Its terms and conditions say it will share user data with authorities upon request, and a new law stipulates its preinstallation in all smartphones sold in Russia. State institutions, officials and businesses are actively encouraged to move communications and blogs to MAX. Anastasia Zhyrmont of the Access Now internet freedom group said both Telegram and WhatsApp were disrupted in Russia in July in what could be a test of how potential blockages would affect internet infrastructure. It wouldn't be uncommon. In recent years, authorities regularly tested cutting off the internet from the rest of the world, sometimes resulting in outages in some regions. Darbinyan believes the only way to make people use MAX is to 'shut down, stifle' every Western alternative. 'But again, habits … do not change in a year or two. And these habits acquired over decades, when the internet was fast and free,' he said. Government media and internet regulator Roskomnadzor uses more sophisticated methods, analyzing all web traffic and identifying what it can block or choke off, Darbinyan said. It's been helped by 'years of perfecting the technology, years of taking over and understanding the architecture of the internet and the players,' as well as Western sanctions and companies leaving the Russian market since 2022, said Kruope of Human Rights Watch. Russia is 'not there yet' in isolating its internet from the rest of the world, Darbinyan said, but Kremlin efforts are 'bringing it closer.'
Toronto Star
5 hours ago
- Toronto Star
Texas and California joust for political advantage, with Trump power and US House majority in play
Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows speaks at a news conference at the Capitol in Austin, Texas, Monday, Aug. 4, 2025, after the Republican-dominated House was unable to establish the quorum of lawmakers required to do business. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP) JWJ flag wire: true flag sponsored: false article_type: : sWebsitePrimaryPublication : publications/toronto_star bHasMigratedAvatar : false :
