Cate Blanchett portrays the late conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly in the new trailer for Mrs. America, a nine-episode limited series coming to FX on Hulu. The show will launch its first three episodes on April 15th, with subsequent episodes premiering each Wednesday.
Mrs. America follows Schlafly’s efforts to deter the women’s liberation movement, lead the Moral Majority conservative movement and prevent the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in the late Seventies. Schlafly, a devout Roman Catholic, was also a staunch opponent of abortion and American left-wing politics, the New York Times noted in her obituary. Women’s lib leader Betty Friedan once compared her to a religious heretic and referred to her as “Aunt Tom.” In addition to successfully blocking the Equal Rights Amendment from passing in 1982, Schlafly founded the conservative organization the Eagle Forum, and in 1964, published her book A Choice Not an Echo, selling more than three million copies. She died in 2016.
“This fight isn’t about equality, it’s about power,” Blanchett, as Schlafly, notes in the trailer. “And I’m just getting started.”
The rest of the principle cast in Mrs. America portray key second-wave feminist figures during the era, including Rose Byrne as Gloria Steinem, Margo Martindale as Bella Abzug, Uzo Aduba as Shirley Chisholm, Elizabeth Banks as Jill Ruckelshaus and Tracey Ullman as Betty Friedan. “We are a political movement, not a sorority,” Byrne tells a gathering of fellow activists. “We don’t get to decide how the battle lines are drawn.”
Other cast members include Sarah Paulson, John Slattery, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Ari Graynor, Melanie Lynskey and Kayli Carter.
Dahvi Waller created the series and serves as showrunner and executive producer alongside Stacey Sher, Coco Francini, Cate Blanchett, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck.
