By the time the MeToo movement swept Hollywood in 2018, it was a subject I\u2019d already spent some time reflecting on. I\u2019d moved to LA in 2016 to join the writers\u2019 room for a show called Barry<\/a> on HBO and during that process its creator and star, Bill Hader, needed me to dig deep on any unsavoury experiences as an actress. Well\u2026<\/p>\n It was the first time that someone in the industry \u2013 and a man, no less \u2013 had asked me, so I talked very openly. Bill was shocked, and I realised I had normalised some shady behaviour. Like a lot of women, I had trivialised my experiences and turned them into funny anecdotes, perhaps even worn them as a badge of honour because I\u2019d managed to navigate and dodge them (though not all of them), which is exactly what women all over the world were confronted with in the wake of MeToo.<\/p>\n We wrote an episode of Barry around that abuse of power. It aired in 2018 as the MeToo movement took hold and it looked like the show had been really prophetic. It won lots of awards.<\/p>\n It was a powerful moment to be in Hollywood and witness up close this incredible outpouring \u2013 a collective confession from women trying to reconcile incidents in their lives and demanding change \u2013 which resulted in an accelerated shift in culture happen right before our eyes.<\/p>\n That same year I was on the set of the Michael Winterbottom film Greed, where Steve Coogan was the lead, and we talked about the subject. It felt like a lot of men were keeping their heads down and hoping the uproar would fade, but Steve, who I\u2019ve known since we worked on another Winterbottom film, The Look of Love, would play devil\u2019s advocate, and we would get into heated debates and make each other laugh. He was brave enough to take the gloves off and spar with me.<\/p>\n It struck both of us that what we needed to see, and what we could contribute, was a space where we could satirise how men and women are supposed to interact in this new climate. And that is how Chivalry<\/a> was born.<\/p>\n Steve plays Cameron O\u2019Neill, an old-school, very experienced film producer, who\u2019s having trouble with a film because it doesn\u2019t pass the MeToo test, so he\u2019s forced to hire my character, Bobby Sohrabi, a \u201cfeminist\u201d film-maker, to make it palatable in the new climate.<\/p>\n I love writing with Steve. It\u2019s been one of the most successful collaborations of my career. He brings a lot to the table. Sadly not a pen or a laptop, but lots of very colourful anecdotes and killer lines.<\/p>\n In terms of process, Steve doesn\u2019t touch a key. He paces around the room and monologues at me and then muggins here does the writing. I\u2019m a bit controlling in how I want things laid out and structured, though, and I like being king on what makes it to the final scripts, so his laziness and my possessiveness are a match made in TV heaven.<\/p>\n Normally in comedies there\u2019s the \u201cstraight guy\u201d; one person feeds the lines and the other person gets to bash about saying outrageous things. That wouldn\u2019t cut it in our show. I couldn\u2019t be the one rolling my eyes and saying, \u201cYou silly old sexist, you can\u2019t go around saying that any more!\u201d We both had to be on equal footing, like the screwball comedies of the 1930s and 40s, all razor-sharp dialogue and biting female ripostes. That took a lot of wrangling during the writing process, because Steve\u2019s very good at making jokes for himself\u2026<\/p>\n It was a tightrope to walk the whole time: we wanted it to be very funny because by laughing, you can begin to heal. But we didn\u2019t want to undermine the essence of the movement, which was a confession of pain and trauma that was real and lived. Both mattered to us.<\/p> We confront the fear people have about MeToo that they aren\u2019t too keen to go public on, voiced by Catherine Deneuve in a letter that basically called MeToo \u201cthe death of sex\u201d \u2013 the fear that all the fun and joyous chemistry between the sexes was in danger of being eternally policed, killing flirting, pleasure and sexiness for ever. But in Chivalry Bobby makes the argument that proper connections and becoming more conscious on consent and boundaries can actually lead to more sex, better sex. It doesn\u2019t always have to be something that men seek, women protect, men take and women give. It\u2019s more complicated than that. More sexy, even. Bobby talks about vaginas a lot. Cameron doesn\u2019t like it so much.<\/p>\n The industry has undoubtedly changed a lot since I started out through the National Youth Theatre. I was always interested in acting.<\/p>\n I remember my dad taking me to a production of The Wizard of Oz when I was six, and I wasn\u2019t convinced by the actor playing Dorothy. I remember thinking, \u201cShe\u2019s overdoing it\u201d.<\/p>\n My dad is a massive film buff, so I grew up with him telling me about the magic of Hollywood. Billy Wilder is one of my dad\u2019s favourite film-makers, and my son\u2019s name is Samuel Wilder, which is Wilder\u2019s real name.<\/p>\n After a lot of theatre roles, I was in the BBC sitcom Him & Her with Russell Tovey, which was a bit of a turning point for me, and after that I had parts in films like Bridget Jones\u2019s Baby. But I always wrote. For years it was just plays above pubs or new writing nights at the Old Vic, the Royal Court and the National. Most of the time, it\u2019s just hard work and frustration because you\u2019re searching for that cosmic moment where you have an audience in the palm of your hand, and they\u2019re laughing and they\u2019re moved exactly when you want them to be. It\u2019s addictive, and it\u2019s magic. It\u2019s the closest I\u2019ll ever get to being a songwriter, which I think is the highest art form in the world. Occasionally you feel like a composer, with all the parts singing the way you intended.<\/p>\n There\u2019s always the reality that certain jokes or themes can be problematic. You have to accept that if you go into certain areas, you\u2019re going to have a target on your back. That\u2019s part of being brave and not writing safe material. Steve and I were aligned in that if it felt on the edge, then we should lean into that rather than pull away from it.<\/p>\n Chivalry is supposed to be entertaining, and I hope people laugh, without feeling preached at or guilty or isolated. But if audiences end up having a conversation about consent or gender disparity, then that\u2019s a bonus.<\/p>\n Another significant factor I am campaigning for is childcare \u2013 we need sets to feel safe and productive for everybody concerned. Actors Charlotte Riley and Tom Hardy (who have two children together) created the Wonderworks, a nursery in Leavesden in Hertfordshire, near the Warner Bros studios. I\u2019m campaigning for Pinewood to do the same. I\u2019d have loved to bring my kids onto the Chivalry set when we were shooting there. I needed childcare and I didn\u2019t have it. They have a big contract with Disney now and should sign up to Wonderworks. Come on Pinewood!<\/p>\n It\u2019s an extra burden for actors and crews. We\u2019re losing lots of talented people because of childcare issues, yet it\u2019s an easy fix. Hollyoaks has an on-set nursery every day. Why don\u2019t we have that everywhere? That would probably be the biggest shift in gender equality.<\/p>\n When I wrote the BBC drama Ridley Road<\/a>, about the rise of antisemitism in the 1960s [shown last October], I read everyone\u2019s comments on Twitter, and it blew me away. The response was overwhelming. Most people had no idea that there was this fascist presence here in 1962. So many were affected by the story and said they cried at the end. If you can entertain while informing audiences, well, that\u2019s why I do it: I\u2019m living for that.<\/p>\n Chivalry starts on Channel 4 on Thursday 21st April with a double bill at 10pm and 10.30pm. Take a look at what is on tonight with our TV Guide<\/a> or visit our Drama<\/a> hub for all the latest news and features.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The latest issue of Radio Times is on sale now \u2013 subscribe now<\/a>\u00a0to get each issue delivered to your door. For more from the biggest stars in TV, l<\/strong>isten to the\u00a0Radio Times podcast<\/a> with Jane Garvey.<\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Emma Cox Published: Thursday, 21 April 2022 at 12:00 am This interview was originally published in Radio Times magazine. By the time the MeToo movement swept Hollywood in 2018, it was a subject I\u2019d already spent some time reflecting on. I\u2019d moved to LA in 2016 to join the writers\u2019 room for a show […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":14239,"template":"","categories":[5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/04\/sarah-solemani-on-channel-4s-chivalry-the-metoo-movement-and-childcare-on-set-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/04\/sarah-solemani-on-channel-4s-chivalry-the-metoo-movement-and-childcare-on-set-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/04\/sarah-solemani-on-channel-4s-chivalry-the-metoo-movement-and-childcare-on-set-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/04\/sarah-solemani-on-channel-4s-chivalry-the-metoo-movement-and-childcare-on-set-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/04\/sarah-solemani-on-channel-4s-chivalry-the-metoo-movement-and-childcare-on-set-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/04\/sarah-solemani-on-channel-4s-chivalry-the-metoo-movement-and-childcare-on-set-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/04\/sarah-solemani-on-channel-4s-chivalry-the-metoo-movement-and-childcare-on-set-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Emma Cox Published: Thursday, 21 April 2022 at 12:00 am This interview was originally published in Radio Times magazine. By the time the MeToo movement swept Hollywood in 2018, it was a subject I\u2019d already spent some time reflecting on. I\u2019d moved to LA in 2016 to join the writers\u2019 room for a show…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/14238"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/03\/Steve-Coogan-and-Sarah-Solemani-Second-Look-a4f1724.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
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