Body Politics

Sigourney Weaver had barely heard of America’s Call Jane collective when she took on a lead role in Phyllis Nagy’s movie about the abortion counselling service. As the overturning of Roe v Wade takes hold, both star and director tell James Mottram that their fi lm has arrived at the perfect moment

The story of a real-life underground organisation in 1960s America designed to provide women with safe abortions back when they were illegal, Call Jane couldn’t be more timely. Starring Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver, it hits cinemas just months after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, a landmark decision from 1973 that conferred the right to have an abortion. Suddenly, director Phyllis Nagy and her cast have found themselves as spokespeople on reproduction rights. ‘I’m very weary of that,’ she sighs. ‘It’s a film. I’m not a politician. I don’t know what’s going to happen but I did know this was on the cards in America. It’s interesting that people have a perception of Roe v Wade as some sort of sacrosanct thing and what a surprise that it was overturned; but it’s been attacked for some 40-odd years.’

In the film, Banks plays Joy, a Chicago housewife who falls pregnant. Out of desperation she turns to Call Jane, a collective run by Weaver’s no-nonsense Virginia. ‘I shamefully had not ever really heard of the Janes, except as a distant memory somewhere in feminist history,’ says Weaver. ‘What really appealed to me about the script was that I saw an opportunity to create a film that was not just going to preach to people who already believed its viewpoint.’

Weaver, famed for her roles in Alien, Ghostbusters and Working Girl, wanted Call Jane to be ‘part of a national dialogue’ about this very divisive issue. Certainly, as Joy joins the Janes to help others in need, it underlines just what’s possible collectively. ‘I find it very inspiring and true,’ says Weaver. ‘And I think that Phyllis directed with just the perfect balance of showing you the intensity of this experience, and showing you the warmth and love that these women had for each other.’

Despite playing at several major film festivals, including Sundance and Berlin, Nagy’s film has been criticised online for being too ‘conventional’, the director reveals. ‘I think there’s a culture where nothing that is light can be serious. I wouldn’t call this a comedy. But it allows for an ease of viewing and I think sometimes people confuse that with conventional or by the book. It’s interesting to me, but entirely unfair.’

Perhaps a better way to look at the film is that it’s part of a growing series of movies looking at the subject, including Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020) and Happening (2021), both female-directed films about young women struggling to get abortions. Whatever happens next (Nagy feels President Biden’s hands are tied, given the balance of the Supreme Court), films like this are a stark reminder of how fragile these rights are.

‘None of us want politicians and lawyers telling us how to make these very intimate decisions in our lives, decisions about family and health,’ says Weaver firmly. ‘Having had a British mother, I can tell you she certainly wouldn’t want the government telling us what to do during these very, very difficult moments.’

Call Jane is in cinemas from Friday 4 November.