Making Suffragettes out of Carey Mulligan and Meryl Streep

Carey Mulligan

One can’t help but feel that the suffragettes have gotten the short end of the stick, historically speaking. There’s a certain formality and unsexiness to the early-20th-century backdrop against which they protested that has translated to a less glorified legacy than that of many of their revolutionary peers. Suffragette, the new film from Sarah Gavron, aims to remedy that, looking at the very real, very radical ladies of the movement. With a starry cast headed up by Meryl Streep, Helena Bonham Carter, and Carey Mulligan, the movie has had a favorable critical response since debuting at the Telluride Film Festival in September. Just in time for its wide release, we caught up via phone with veteran costume designer Jane Petrie (from her current post on location with Brad Pitt in Abu Dhabi) to talk about cleaning house with Bonham Carter, getting physical in 100-year-old clothes, and these “hard-core” heroines.

Read interview here