Sheila McCarthy And Judith Ivey On Women's Empowerment In Women Talking - Exclusive Interview

Women's empowerment in Hollywood productions still has a long way to go. While the percentage of women working in behind-the-scenes roles has steadily increased, women still only made up 25% of total production roles among the 250 top-grossing films in the U.S. in 2021, according to the Celluloid Ceiling report, published by San Diego State University. Furthermore, the percentage of female directors working on the top 100 movies declined by 4 percentage points from 2020 to 2021.

There's one film that transcended the status quo this year by portraying a woman-centric storyline and hiring a woman-majority production crew — "Women Talking." Directed by Sarah Polley, the film recently received the Seal of Female Empowerment in Entertainment from the Critics Choice Association Women's Committee for its "prominent female character arc" and including women in major leadership roles behind the scenes.

"Women Talking" takes inspiration from a novel of the same name, written by Miriam Toews. According to The Guardian, Toews wrote the novel to depict an "imagined response" to a series of gruesome sexual assaults that happened from 2005 to 2009 in a Bolivian Mennonite community. The film illustrates a similar scenario that consists of women in a Mennonite community coming together against sexual assault, and it covers the generational trauma the survivors face, as well as many issues that are at the forefront of current discussions.

Sheila McCarthy and Judith Ivey, who respectively play Mennonite elders Greta Loewen and Agatha Friesen in the film, spoke exclusively to The List about the impact female empowerment had on the production of "Women Talking" and how the film speaks to current issues.

Sheila, you're also in "The Umbrella Academy," which also [has] a woman-centric storyline. What sets this role apart from that role?

McCarthy: I think Greta is her own entity; it's not about a man in her life, whereas little Agnes is very dependent on Hazel, the bad guy in "The Umbrella Academy." There's an awakening in both characters. Agnes [is] 30 years older than her suitor, which was never commented on. I thought it was so refreshing in a television series that I was actually 30 years older and it was not a problem. The producers went, "No, it's fine. It's whatever. You're in love with him. I'm okay." 

The awakening for Agnes [is] to have this new love in her life. For Greta, on the flip side, her awakening is standing by her decision and fully exploring her relationship with her daughter, Mariche, and awakening to the fact that she needs to apologize. There's these new thoughts in both those characters. I love that. When I'm exploring a character, I always like to go, "What are they not good at? What are they bad at? What are their flaws?" To me, that's the most interesting part of playing a part, and both those characters are beautifully flawed.

The film covered several topics that are at the forefront of conversations that we're currently having — transgender rights, and also the idea of women staying single throughout their life. How did you feel seeing these issues being covered in the context of a Mennonite community?

McCarthy: It's [a] microcosm of the world we live in now in a hayloft. You're right — I hadn't thought about Rooney's character as a woman who's electing to be alone and being fine with it. And that's Miriam Toews — she wrote that novel. Every person is very three-dimensional in it and well-drawn. [There's] the idea that Melvin has chosen not to use his voice. Again, it's "Women Talking," and the metaphors in that were so fantastic. My teeth coming out, losing my ability to talk — they were all purposeful in the film and important and relevant.

Ivey: It also gave you the distance to be able to look at it — because when the movie starts, because of that particular culture, you think you won't have anything in common [and] you're going to watch this fable unfold. And very quickly you realize, "It's the same thing we're talking about here in 2022." Unfortunately, the world hasn't changed.

In a Now Toronto article, Sarah Polley talked about how it felt to release this film in the midst of a movement that is going on right now with regard to Roe v. Wade and reproductive rights of women in the U.S. In a nutshell, she said, "Just like the stakes are high for the women in the film, the stakes are similarly high for women and securing reproductive rights." I would love to hear your perspective on this.

McCarthy: The idea that [our characters] get to vote, first of all, for the first time in our lives is massively important to me. I voted in Canada recently, and I've always found it a very moving experience to cast my vote. In this situation, [our characters are] casting a vote that is going to determine everything about our lives. It's almost a do-or-die situation, and that's very profound to me. In your country, a vote is something that you have power over, and isn't that a wonderful thing not to take for granted?

Ivey: Sarah has spoken extensively about how she wanted this to capture how a democracy begins by setting up [how] we're uneducated, we don't read, we don't write, but we knew to vote, and [we can] give everyone the right to speak up. Certainly in the United States, that's one of the things we're challenged with right now — trying to suppress voters' rights, and how is that going to affect our democracy?

McCarthy: Films should be a mirror [of] what's going on in society. If nothing else, we hope that this film provokes conversation about reproductive rights, about Roe v. Wade, about every issue that's not necessarily named in the movie but you can certainly see the parallels to.