Interview: Suffragette Writer Abi Morgan

Lesley Coffin (TMS): I read that you originally considered writing the film from the perspective of a woman from a higher class, and ended up starting over and focusing on Maud (Carey Mulligan), who comes from essentially the lowest class who still made up these militant suffragettes. What made you change your mind while writing it?

Morgan: I think it was when I started to read the testimonials given at Parliament, shown in the midsection of the film. They were so heartbreaking, so vivid, and so contemporary, that what I realized was that many of these women had only their lives to lose. They were often abused at home and living and working in appalling conditions. And that is a very 21st century concern. Many poor women have to fight for custodial rights to their children and equal pay. And the fact that this film took us 6 years to get made, allowed us to get a sense of what global inequality means, with the rise of the digital age. So we wanted to focus on women with such limited options. If they were arrested, they didn’t have the money to pay their bail, so if they were incarcerated for a week, they likely would not be returning to their jobs. So it was important to look at the kind of jeopardy these women put themselves through.

 Lesley Coffin (TMS): Regarding making this film feel contemporary, were there things that you read about or saw in the news or media during that 6 year period you wanted to comment on in the film?

Morgan: In many ways, we didn’t have to because it was all there. We didn’t have to comment on anything directly, because it is all still right in front of us. I think we now live in a world in which we are increasingly aware of police surveillance, the use of torture, and human rights abuses. Around the world, 98% of those affected by workplace exploitation are women and children, so we inherently had points of reference and comparisons, and made this feel very resonant and we hoped that would be conveyed to our audience. But in a weird way, this film is an example of the manner in which history keeps repeating itself. And the discourse we’re having around the film feels as important as the film itself. Discourse is how we create equality. One of the things which occurred for the women in the film was the fact that women were constantly being ridiculed in the press and denied a voice. The film is about giving women a voice, and more than anything, I hope this is a film which will advocate for giving women, all women, all over the world, a voice. So if it has resonance for contemporary life, and all that really came from the source material.