Cate Blanchett on "Mrs. America" and the fight for the equal rights amendment

Cate Blanchett on "Mrs. America" and the fight for the equal rights amendment
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The limited series Mrs. America, available to stream at FX on Hulu, follows conservative Phyllis Schlafly. Duri...

The limited series Mrs. America, available to stream at FX on Hulu, follows conservative Phyllis Schlafly.

During this conference call, executive producer/actress Cate Blanchett talked about how she viewed Phyllis Schlafly, how very relevant this series is to the times we’re living in now, the source material that she turned to, why Schlafly believed the ERA was detrimental to America, how playing Phyllis Schlafly affected the way she views her own feminism, why she was underestimated, how the costumes helped her get into character, and what she hopes this series does for viewers.

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Question: How did you interpret Phyllis Schlafly, as you played her?

She’s such a polarizing figure and quite contradictory, but it’s undeniable that she was a contemporary woman who really changed the course of the American political landscape

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Cate Blanchett, who’s also an executive producer on the series, who led the backlash against the movement to ratify the Equgal Rights Amendment (ERA) during the culture wars of the 1970s, forever shifting the political landscape. As she went up against the second wave of feminists, including Gloria Steinem (Rose Byrne), Betty Friedan (Tracey Ullman), Shirley Chisholm (Uzo Aduba), Bella Abzug (Margo Martindale) and Jill Ruckelshaus (Elizabeth Banks), she helped give rise and a voice to the Moral Majority.

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