Meryl Streep has joined Rachel Feldman’s long-in-the-works biopic about fair pay whistleblower and activist Lilly Ledbetter. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the three-time Oscar winner is backing the project and helping Feldman and her team bring it to production.
Feldman is directing “Lilly” from her own script, which made the 2014 Athena List, an annual collection of the best unproduced screenplays focusing on women leaders. Feldman and J. Todd Harris (“The Kids Are All Right”) are producing.
A longtime passion project for Feldman, the film will depict how Ledbetter’s actions inspired the Fair Pay Restoration Act — aka the Lilly Ledbetter Act — the first piece of legislation President Barack Obama signed after his inauguration.
“Historic dramas often chronicle the external forces of politics, but ‘Lilly’ tells the story of what happens to a woman’s inner life when patriarchal injustice overwhelms every aspect of her existence,” Feldman described. “‘Lilly’ is the perfect film for this moment in time.”
Ledbetter worked for over two decades in an Alabama Goodyear Factory. After enduring years of grueling labor, sexual harassment, and favoritism, she discovered that she was being paid significantly less than the men doing the same job. She sued Goodyear and won, but the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the decision because she filed her claim more than 180 days after receiving her first discriminatory paycheck. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg read Ledbetter’s dissent and urged Congress to look further into the matter. This led to the Fair Pay Restoration Act, which states that the 180-day statute of limitations on filing an equal pay lawsuit resets with every new paycheck that is affected by that previous discrimination.
Streep herself has been a vocal advocate for equal pay, along with many other women in the film industry, from Michelle Williams to Tessa Thompson to Patty Jenkins. Streep also highlighted the issue when she was promoting Sarah Gavron’s historical drama “Suffragette,” in which she portrayed women’s suffrage activist Emmeline Pankhurst.
You can catch Streep as Aunt March in Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women,” in theaters now. The Louisa May Alcott adaptation recently hit the $100 million mark at the domestic box office. “The Laundromat” and “Big Little Lies” are among her other recent credits.
Feldman has directed over 75 hours of television. She’s helmed episodes of “Blue Bloods,” “Criminal Minds,” and “Sisters,” among many other shows. She previously served as chair of the DGA Women’s Steering Committee.
In a recent guest post for Women and Hollywood, Feldman called for the industry to hire women TV directors to helm feature films. “If a woman can direct successful episodic television with the demands of extreme time constraints, ever-changing personalities of cast and crew, and the increasing expectations for cinematic excitement including stunts and special effects, while maintaining the highest standards of performance, her skill set is beyond capable to deliver her own vision,” she wrote. “Imagine the cliched thoroughbred being trapped in the starting gate. When that filly is released, is she going to wait for instructions, or is she going to run the time of her life?”
