Alison Owen, producer of ‘Suffragette’, talks to Judith Woods about why she had to make the film on everyone’s lips and how everyone should embrace feminism.
"I have never before made a movie where so many people feel compelled to get in touch to say 'thank you for making this'," says producer Alison Owen of new film Suffragette.
"Audiences tell me they feel their grandmothers have finally been honoured. And if they're not in tears during the movie itself, the closing credits will have them welling up."
It's no spoiler to confirm the movie, starring Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter and Meryl Streep, packs a heck of a punch.
Set to open in New Zealand next month, Suffragette taps into a fresh global mood of confrontation of the shortcomings still inherent in 21st century "equality".
In New Zealand - a nation proud to have been the first to give women the vote - singer Lizzie Marvelly is at the forefront of a new feminist movement. Her flagship media project Villainesse rapidly gaining global attention.
Owen, whose CV features a string of high-profile movies such as Elizabeth, Sylvia, The Other Boleyn Girl, Shaun of the Dead and Saving Mr Banks, has an unerring eye for a compelling story.
That Suffragette has dovetailed seamlessly with the zeitgeist is an achievement all the more impressive given its genesis began five years ago.
"Back when I started on this project, feminism was still a dirty word," she says. "Nobody used it because it was freighted with militant negativity.
"Since then, the brand has been 'detoxified' by a hugely important cultural shift in perceptions. Really amazing, successful, glamorous role models are now proud to define themselves as feminists; Tina Fey, Taylor Swift, Emma Watson, Beyonce."
Mulligan, 30, has said she wasn't grabbed by the idea of a film about suffragettes - until the script won her over. With supporting roles from Helena Bonham Carter and Meryl Streep, this is an account of the working women who became foot soldiers in the battle for universal suffrage.
"These women were guerrillas, they weren't just holding up placards calling 'Votes for Women', they were breaking windows and setting fires and engaging in civil disobedience," says Owen. "Their story needed to be told."
A staunch feminist, Owen, 52, is a charismatic Junoesque blonde, who radiates fierce intelligence.
I summon up the courage to admit that I cavil at calling myself a "feminist"; her response is curiosity rather than castigation.
She asks about my upbringing - one of five girls brought up by an academic, ambitious mother - and cheerfully concludes I am deluded and that the only reason I'm not railing against the inherent sexism rife in society is that I was brought up in a feminist bubble.
Carey Mulligan and Meryl Streep. Photo / AP
"Feminism is about equality and freedom of choice," she says, firmly. "It means women having the same opportunities to realise their potential as men do. Surely you believe in those?"
I reply that I do: "Of course I do, it's just the 'f-word'. It sounds so dogmatic ... maybe if it was called something else ... " I trail off, wanly.
"Well, if you believe in these things then you are, by definition, a feminist. End of. It's the only word we've got, so deal with it. You. Are. A. Feminist. Embrace the label!" triumphs Owen.
She lives in north London with third husband, Aaron Batterham, an art director, who has four grown-up children.
Owen has three adult children; Laura, a vintage fashion retailer from her first union, and Lily and Alfie from her second marriage, to hell-raising actor, Keith Allen.
That makes her the mother of Lily Allen, singer, songwriter and sometime controversialist. Lily, now 30 and a mother of two daughters, has not been entirely consistent in her own take on feminism.
In 2011, she announced she was living her dream as a rural housewife. By 2013 she had re-emerged from domestic bliss to make a music video, Hard Out Here that was slated for being racist because of its "twerking" dancers, who were all black or Asian.
A year later, Lily declared feminism ought to be declared defunct as equality had been achieved - before u-turning shortly afterwards, saying that the need for feminism was as pressing as ever.
As her mother, Owen responds by looking elaborately vague and murmuring: "I'm not aware of any contradictory remarks, but she's right; feminism ought not to be necessary in this day and age - but it is."
Owen describes herself as an A-Z producer, who sees an idea through from inception to production; commissioning the script to sitting with the casting director, raising finance to trouble-shooting on set.
"I'm attracted to stories that have strong women and have something original to say," she emphasises. "Nearly 100 years have passed since women got the vote and we have to be vigilant that things don't go backwards."
