Rita (Sally Hawkins) in "Made in Dagenham" (Credit: Simon Mein/Sony Pictures Classics)

Based on a true story, the British film Made In Dagenham focuses on the 187 women at the Ford Motor Company who went on strike to demand a fair wage.  Happy-Go-Lucky actress Sally Hawkins, in a performance that is generating its share of Oscar buzz, plays Rita O’Grady, a married mother who becomes the inspired voice and spokesperson for her fellow co-workers.  One memorable sequence that takes place during the movie’s third act has Rita giving a rousing speech to a group of union members, and Hawkins loved delivering a lengthy monologue in front of a crowded room.  “When you have that sea of suits, men in suits…it was very atmospheric,” said Hawkins, who is currently working on Broadway opposite Cherry Jones in Mrs. Warren’s Profession. “In the filming the more you get into it the more passionate you get.  The more you realize you’re sort of on a level personally in your own life where you realize actually how important this is.  That scene for me was the crux of the film and of the message.  At that point it’s almost that her guard drops and she realizes that she is not speaking…she is not prepared.  She just talks from her heart.  She talks with truth and that’s the most powerful thing she can do.  She’s incredibly vulnerable because she has worked so hard, she is tired, she is at the end of the fight.  She lets that show and actually it carries through.  She knows she has to keep going.  I loved doing that scene.  It’s a very passionate point, it’s the ultimate point for Rita in the story.”  Click on the media bar and listen to Hawkins describe Rita’s 1968 fashion sense (she mentions producer Stephen Woolley and director Nigel Cole in the clip) in Made in Dagenham (co-star Miranda Richardson, who plays Barbara Castle, the Secretary of State of Employment and Productivity, is also heard in the clip)

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posted by Greg Srisavasdi