“You’re a smart girl, Ruthie,” some condescending old dude tells a young Ruth Bader frickin’ Ginsburg in the trailer for “On the Basis of Sex.” “You married a star.” But as the clip for the upcoming biopic makes abundantly clear, it’s Ruth who is the star.
Directed by Mimi Leder (“Deep Impact,” “The Leftovers”), the film centers on RBG (Felicity Jones) as she’s establishing her law career and her status as a feminist icon. “There are 170 laws that differentiate on the basis of sex,” she points out. “Women can’t work overtime, we have to get credit cards in our husbands’ names,” and the list goes on and on.
And — in a moment that feels extremely relevant in 2018 — Ruth voices her support for activism, but is skeptical of its tangible results. “Protests are important, but changing the culture means nothing if the law doesn’t change,” she remarks.
Luckily, she sets out to do just that. Teaming up with her husband, Marty (Armie Hammer), and the ACLU, Ruth brings a sexual discrimination case — one in which a man is the one being discriminated against — to court. Despite warnings that the lawsuit is “a declaration of war” and could set women’s rights back a decade, Ruth is confident that she’s on the right side of history. “We could topple the whole damn system of discrimination,” she declares.
Hitting theaters December 25, “On the Basis of Sex” is written by Daniel Stiepleman, Bader Ginsburg’s nephew. The script made the Black List and the first ever Athena List.
The famed Supreme Court Justice has also been the subject of another film this year, “RBG.” From Julie Cohen and Betsy West, the pic is the 25th highest-grossing doc since 1982. It has earned over $12.5 million since its May 4 opening.
A limited series about RBG and former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is in the works, too. The project hails from Alyssa Milano’s Peace by Peace Productions and Denise Di Novi and Nina Tassler’s PatMa Productions.
