To Freedom’s Cause – A Sense of Responsibility

Writing about a real person inevitably brings with it a huge sense of responsibility. As a writer and as an actor my aim has always been to capture the essence of that person.

Women such as Emily Wilding Davison, Elizabeth Fry and Mary Queen of Scots, who I have previously written about, attract admirers and detractors. Both can be equally fierce in voicing their strongly held opinions.

 

 

TO FREEDOM’S CAUSE, as with all my work to date, strives to achieve a truthful interpretation based on historical research and gut instinct, because none of us were actually there and even some eyewitness reports, such as Mary Richardson’s Epsom Derby account, have been discredited.

 

 

 

However, reading primary sources has always been a great way to understand the subject, because biographers can sometimes bash readers over the head with their own particular viewpoint.

I was therefore thrilled to come across two wonderful interviews, directly connected with the recent film Philomena, which highlight the importance of striving to be truthful.

 

“It’s a job of work … you have to get on with just telling the story that is there … this is someone’s personal story. You don’t want to dramatize it and you don’t want to under play it. You just want to be true to it.”
– Dame Judi Dench

 

The first clip is an interview with Philomena Lee herself, with her daughter that refers to some alterations in the retelling of events, for the sake of the drama.

Click here for the Philomena Lee interview

And the second, is taken from a Press interview with Dame Judi Dench, where she talks about being very aware that her character was based on someone still alive today, whom she met several times and greatly admired.

Click here for the Dame Judi Dench interview

I loved Philomena and can’t wait to get the DVD so that I can catch up on the first 10 minutes that I missed due to being directed to the wrong cinema screen (A midly comic scene in itself).

Whether the person is alive or an historical figure, the principal remains the same :

 

“That’s not my story. I have to relate it back to [the person] … and in the end you hope you can come back to something that is as near the truth of that person as you can possibly manage.”
– Dame Judi Dench

 

For more information about TO FREEDOM’S CAUSE, please click here, or browse the website for related posts, photos and updates on what’s happening next.

 

Emily Wilding Davison’s legacy is for life, not just for 2013.