Cate Blanchett Will Do Her Best to Curtail Women's Rights as Phyllis Schlafly in FX's Mrs. America
EntertainmentTVCate Blanchett can do whatever she likes, and next she’s doing television.
She’s been Carol. She’s been Galadriel. She’s been the woman equivalent of Brad Pitt’s character in Ocean’s 8. Now, Blanchett will take her talents to the small screen and play Phyllis Schlafly, the staunch conservative from the 1970s who railed against the Equal Rights Amendment, on an upcoming series for FX.
IndieWire reports that Mrs. America will focus on the right to ratify the ERA, and will feature other prominent feminists from Schlafly’s time, including “Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug and Jill Ruckelshaus.” I love that Blanchett is so confident in her career and in her acting chops that she would choose to play the ultimate villain—a woman who wishes to chip away at the rights of other women—in the year of our lord 2018.
Whereas TV has long been viewed as a second-best option for aspiring creatives after film, more and more big-name, award-winning actors have been turning to TV or even web projects—which isn’t surprising, necessarily—you may have heard that there’s too much TV? Elizabeth Olsen and Catherine Zeta-Jones have both joined Facebook Watch series, which is apparently something to pay attention to now, and Julia Roberts stars in the upcoming Amazon series Homecoming. Next thing you know, Steve Carell will play the manager of a local paper company in a series for Hulu. Wait a minute…