Sally Hawkins Discusses Made in Dagenham and Her Oscar Snub

You might think Sally Hawkins got nominated for an Oscar after winning the Golden Globe for Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky in 2009, but you would be wrong. Despite a winning lead performance and the backing of both critics and the Hollywood Foreign Press, Hawkins was a bridesmaid in the Best Actress race that winter. Of course, being snubbed once by Oscar doesn't mean Hawkins is ready to pack it up; she's back on the awards circuit this fall for her performance as a striking (and striking) autoworker in Made in Dagenham.

In the true story, Hawkins plays Rita O'Grady, a Ford factory worker who organizes a strike of all the female employees until they are paid the equal wages of their male counterparts -- a strike that eventually brought the English production of Fords to a standstill. Movieline spoke to Hawkins about the balance between telling a true story and being preachy, Richard Schiff's newfound hair, her second time around with awards season and what not to do when interviewing Mike Leigh.

I know people have compared the colors in the film to Mad Men, but it's one of the first things that popped in my mind, too. How do you feel about this comparison?

It's a real compliment to the whole team. I think they were very clever about it. The production value in Mad Men is just impeccable and I'm a huge fan of it, actually. Because of that detail, you believe that those are real clothes and they're not highly polished sets, they've been incredibly well researched. And they look lived in and they looked real. And it's always nice, aesthetically, as an actor; it's very helpful when you have people that clever at what they do, filling in the aesthetic world for you. Yeah, I love that when I watch it on screen. It's a huge compliment.

With the role of someone like Rita, was there a concern that it could come off as too preachy if not played correctly?

Yeah, I think first we had a really great script that doesn't fall into that. But I was aware -- very aware, actually -- that it could quite easily become that because she had many of those speeches. And she was becoming very much a political figure that it could quite quickly become strident and also you stop listening in that way. I thought that it had to be quite subtle in her development as a political figure, but, also, not lose who she was. She is a housewife and a normal working mom. And somebody that we can hopefully all relate to. And when you have people like that in those situations, they're not political animals and they're not versed in political language. I think we can recognize people in the news; we all relate to those kind of people. The sort of people that could be our mother or a friend and she is having to put on this hat and I didn't want to lose her true voice.

And there's a scene in the film where Ford tries to paint her as a political figure or a Marxist. It seems like that's the strategy sometimes, if someone has an opinion, they must be political.

Absolutely! You're sort of put into a box because of it.

Richard Schiff is in this film, who is great. But, I swear, I didn't recognize him.

Oh! Brilliant! He's great, I love him.

He doesn't look anything like Toby on The West Wing.

He loved his wig in this, apparently [laughs]. I think he really loved his look in this. It was good fun for him to try and put on another hat, as it were [laughs].

Do you like him better with the beard it or without the beard?

Oh, whatever. Whether it's with or without the beard, I think Richard is a [laughs]... I don't think I can choose. I'll take both of them.

Rita organizes the strike but there are some unforeseen consequences as a result. Is there anything in your life that you could relate with that?

Those kinds of things seem to happen to me every single day [laughs]. You can't predict as terms of work and also personal experience. Sorry that I'm being particularly vague, I can't think of an example at the moment. I wish I could give a brilliant example [laughs].

Let's say that you could speak to the American movie-going audience. How do you pitch Made in Dagenham?

Oh, again, you see, I'm really bad at this. But, I think, I just hope to inspire and educate. I've been lucky that I've been taking part in a few Q&As and seeing the audience in America. When an audience is affected in a way that I've seen with some people, it's so inspiring to me an an actor. You know that you're on the right track and you're doing wok that can affect people. When that goes hand-in-hand with important issues that we're still living with, and we will be for a long time, sadly, it's so confirming of everything. It's just wonderful to see that people are really, genuinely affected and see similarities in their own life in terms of discrimination and sexual equality. We all deal with discrimination. In America, there's similar issues certainly. Relating it to the equal pay act, America is recently readdressing the equal pay act of 1968. And then you have Lilly Ledbetter who is an incredible figure who I met recently.

Have you found awards season frustrating? When looking at what you went through in 2008 for Happy-Go-Lucky, you won the Golden Globe, gave a very heartfelt speech, picked up more and more nominations along the way, but, in the end, the Oscar nomination didn't happen. Was the frustrating?

No, it's not at all. I really, genuinely -- to be celebrated, to be given an award on that scale, to be celebrated for a work that you're so proud of, is incredible. And there's no way that I could be...people were sort of horrified that I wasn't nominated and it was quite shocking to me -- I have a Golden Globe, I mean, I'm doing OK! Before that point I was not really known in the U.S. and America embracing Happy-Go-Lucky in that way was so beyond anything I could have ever imagined during the making of the film. It was just an incredible experience and it's an understatement to say that it was a bonus: A beautiful, brilliant bonus that nobody could have expected. From your email, I feel very lucky to be taking part in that buzz as well. Anything that comes outside of making the film is wonderful. I do feel very lucky to be doing it so relatively recently. It was only two years ago that we were going through all of that and I didn't think it would happen again. I'm very lucky and it's really nice to be talked about in that way with these incredible films and other actors that I never dreamed that I'd be considered on that level.

OK, but you'd still like to get that Oscar nomination, right?

Of course! Oh, absolutely. To deny that is lying [laughs]. That would be the ultimate! As a young actor dreaming of big things, that would be the ultimate prize. It would be very overwhelming. I think my heart and brain would explode.

Do you miss working with Mike Leigh?

I love working with Mike Leigh. I talk about Happy-Go-Lucky a lot, and he's still a good friend of mine so, I'm not, in a way [laughs]. He's still so much a part of my world and my life. I'm luck I have him as a very good friend. I hope that one day we will do it again and it's a brilliant experience.

I'm talking to him for Another Year in the next two or three days...

Will you send him my love?

I will, but I've seen he can get, well, annoyed with the media. Should I be worried?

No [laughs]! No, don't be scared. He's... [pauses] I think like everyone, he gets frustrated with having to get his point across and get it across when you have a lack of time in interviews. That's nobody's fault, it's just the nature of these things. He's so particular and detailed and precise what he thinks and the subject matter of films and the details of how he works, it's so precise. So I think he gives that impression, but, really, he's the loveliest man. And brilliant and funny and incredibly kind. So don't be scared.

That makes sense about you saying he's precise. It seems that when he gets annoyed is when someone makes an assumption about his movie that's wrong.

Yes, don't make any presumptions when you're speaking to him [laughs].