Typical Hollywood speak, you can’t have good drama without conflict. Ginsburg reviewed the script as if it were a contract. Then, as I was saying before, find a producer who believes in that project for the same reasons that you do because you need someone who’s going to fight for you and with you to tell the story you want to tell. “Every time I sort of feel overwhelmed by something, I constantly come back to her,” she said. Scott: In Hollywood there’s a saying, “Never let the facts get in the way of the story.” Were there any facts of substance that you had to change to fit the narrative of your script? For 100s more Go Into The Story interviews, go here. The objections started with the very first line, which described young Ruth wearing heels to her orientation at Harvard Law School; she wore flats, she explained to her nephew, because she walked to campus. That’s certainly the crucial role that Jane plays. It’s not like you really teach us anything. There were moments where people would be like, “Oh, I would finance this movie. Daniel: Yeah, absolutely. Representing that dynamic may be one reason Justice Ginsburg gave the film her greenlight. Stiepleman is actually Ginsburg’s nephew. I’m excited to get to talk to you about this because nobody ever asks this question. Scott: On the Basis of Sex. The film is an origin story, revealing how a young mother went from one of the few women in her class at Harvard to an architect of the laws that overturned gender discrimination (no more bias “on the basis of sex”). I remember at some point saying in a meeting, “Look, there’s a 5,000‑year history of Western narrative of men coming home from battle and their wives patching them up and sending them back out again. What I did was there were inaccuracies in the script that I would argue make the script much more true, and I’ll give you an example. She felt like her career should get going now, and then she was told, “No, you don’t get to do this because you’re a woman.” Because Ruth had to wait, we have to wait. But to financiers and development executives, the character of Martin Ginsburg as a supportive husband was far-fetched. I’m going through them A, B, A, B, B, B, A, A, B, and I get one that says D. There was a little note, and it said, “Sorry, Mr. Stiepleman. It’s an example of how you can use structure to do something emotionally so that when her time actually comes you feel like it’s about damn time. I think he should threaten to divorce her if she moves on with the case.” It’s hard to get a movie made. She reviewed several drafts of the script, as did her daughter, Jane C. Ginsburg, whose childhood and teenage years are depicted onscreen. Backers offered to fund the film if he was rewritten as angrier, or less understanding; maybe he should threaten to divorce his wife, if she didn’t drop the case. In an interview with the New York Times, screenwriter Daniel Stiepleman said Hollywood execs balked at his script for On the Basis of Sex, a biopic about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, because it portrayed her husband, Martin Ginsburg, as a kind and encouraging spouse. It feels like you’re entering a new phase of the story, but you haven’t even gotten the main thrust of the story going yet. The story had to do with a case that his uncle, a tax lawyer, tried with his wife, who happened to be Ruth Bader Ginsburg. That was especially crucial being a man writing a woman because what changes isn’t the way you approach the character. Edward Stiepleman's current partners: Edward Stiepleman's wife is Claire Stiepleman. Scott: To me, it’s one of the strengths of the story. Stiepleman’s affection for his aunt and license as an insider are palpable as he gently, perhaps too gently, teases her seriousness of purpose, her discipline, and her legendarily awful cooking. The reason that works is because Ruth had to wait. I took a period jump and a tonal jump. She also wanted the practice of law to be depicted accurately. “I remember at some point saying in a meeting, There’s a 5,000-year history of narrative, of men coming home from battle, and their wives patch them up and boost their egos and send them back out to fight again. The powerful and timely true story of US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who led the fight against gender discrimination and blazed an unpre… The student had the important things to do. Daniel: The short answer is no. That would make Ruth somehow look weak. It’s about your son.” He went to the school, and he sat down, as he used to describe it, “across the table from these stone faces.”. Edward Stiepleman's in laws: Edward Stiepleman's sister in law-by-marriage was Ruth Bader Ginsburg Edward Stiepleman's father in law was Morris Ginsburg Edward Stiepleman's mother in law was Evelyn Ginsburg Edward Stiepleman's brother in law was Martin … I thought that would make a great movie. New York Times RECOMMENDED ARTICLES. I tell my students all the time, “It’s always about character. Scott: That’s a great point because you grounded it in her character, and we’re emotionally connected to her. The reply, in a stern voice: “Just one more.”. Then, one day when I had to grade my students, I would give them the opportunity to grade me as well. It was a reverence Stiepleman couldn’t miss: for Hanukkah, “every year from the ages of 5 to 12, she gave me a copy of the U.S. Constitution,” he said. She couldn’t really butt heads with Ruth the same way that Jane did. And she’s reeeally busy.”), Her other big note, he said, was that she didn’t want moviegoers to think that she alone shattered legal barriers, “as if it had never occurred to anyone else that women should be considered equal.”. Ginsburg at Harvard Law School in the film, above, and as a senior at Cornell in real life, below. To anyone who was around the Ginsburgs, their unusual parity was obvious. Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States/Focus Features, The justice’s nephew, the screenwriter Daniel Stiepleman, left, and her daughter, Jane C. Ginsburg, who said, “There wasn’t going to be a movie, at least not by him, if my mother wasn’t comfortable with it.”. To speak with its screenwriter daniel Stiepleman crucial being a man writing a woman, is how every other responds. What happened was, originally, I would give them the opportunity to my... Of writing this script is because Ruth had to brief to other lawyers soliciting! 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