Sally Hawkins, “Made in Dagenham”– FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

By Sean O’Connell Hollywoodnews.com: A Tweet from film critic Roger Ebert carries a lot of weight. He has been known to boost or sink a film’s profile with brief, 140-character reviews. From time to time, he weighs in on individual performances, as well, and comments on how an actor might fare in the ever-shifting Oscar race. Of Sally Hawkins, who fights for female equality in Nigel Cole’s crowd-pleasing “Made in Dagenham,” Ebert recently <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/ebertchicago/status/7456477501460480">Tweeted: “Sally Hawkins is an Oscar candidate as a fed-up Ford worker in “Made in Dagenham.” Pay me same as a man!” He’s right. Hawkins, who many thought would earn a nod for her overtly sunny performance in Mike Leigh’s “Happy-Go-Lucky,” puts a human face on a national struggle when she plays Rita O’Grady, a Ford plant worker who demands equal pay and leads a labor strike when she doesn’t get it. She receives excellent support from Bob Hoskins, Daniel Mays, Miranda Richardson and Rosamund Pike. But it’s Hawkins’ show, and the several pundits have said that Academy would do well to recognize her work in this winning piece. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0LF-F1QNAw We recently spoke to Hawkins about “Dagenham” as she was on her way to a special screening of the film in New York City. Hawkins was in the Big Apple because she’s busy performing in the Broadway production of “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” with Cherry Jones. But she took a few minutes to talk “Dagenham” with us as she ramps up for the busy Oscar season. HollywoodNews.com: The scene that won our crowd over was the one where your character, Rita, emerges in that stunning red dress. You could feel the electricity pulse through our audience. I need to know, did you feel as radiant and powerful in that scene as you looked? Sally Hawkins: What a lovely thing to say. That’s really sweet of you. I knew it was quite a powerful moment in the film. It’s the moment where she finally realizes what she has to do and the importance of what she’s got to do. It’s like she has been given the image in order to make herself known in that [political] world and actually have an effect in that world. And like you say, it’s such an iconic image, the red dress. It has such power. And also it’s iconic because it … the color red in the UK has significance with socialism and all of the connotations of [...]