Weekend Woman's Hour: Michelle Williams, Elizabeth McGovern, former New Zealand PM Helen Clark on Jacinda Ardern

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.2 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 21 January 2023

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The award-winning actor Michelle Williams discusses her new role in Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical film, The Fabelmans. She plays Mitzi, a concert pianist who’s put her artistic ambition aside to raise a family, and is struggling to play a supporting role to her computer genius husband. Michelle explains why she was attracted to the role, and how her work in Dawson's Creek as a teenager set her up for Hollywood success. On Thursday, the New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced her shock resignation. We discuss with BBC Diplomatic Correspondent James Lansdale, former Prime Minister Helen Clark and the political scientist Lara Greaves from Auckland University. Wendy Warrington is an NHS nurse and midwife who has been giving medical help and support to women and children in Ukraine since March last year. She tells us about the impact of the war on maternity services in the country. Afghan police have confirmed that a former Afghan MP and her bodyguard have been shot dead at her home in the capital Kabul. Mursal Nabizada was one of nine out of 69 female MPs who chose to stay in the country after the Taliban returned to power. We speak to Fawzia Koofi, Afghanistan's First Woman Deputy Speaker of Parliament. The Oscar-nominated actor and Downton Abbey star Elizabeth McGovern shares her experience of playing Martha in a new production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ‘Lucky girl syndrome’ is a new trend taking over TikTok with over 80 million views of the hashtag. The journalist Róisín Lanigan from i-D magazine and psychologist Catherine Hallissey discuss whether it’s just a new take on positive thinking, and whether there is any psychological basis for it. Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Lucy Wai Editor: Lucinda Montefiore

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Weekend Romance Hour with me Anita Rani. This is where we bring you the
0:05.5	best bits from the week just gone and have we got a star-studded lineup for you today. Coming up,
0:11.1	the actor Elizabeth McGuvan tells us about her new theatre role and reflects on the success of
0:17.0	Downton Abbey in which she played the Countess, Cora Crawley. That was a script that I liked but
0:23.3	my feeling was oh my mom and I will both like this and it turned out that it was
0:27.8	if my mom and I and like the rest of the world it was you know really a shock. As Jacinda
0:35.5	Ardern announces her retirement we hear from New Zealand's former Prime Minister Helen Clark
0:40.0	about her legacy and have you heard of Lucky Girl Syndrome. Stay tuned to hear more about the new
0:46.0	positive thinking trend taking over TikTok. But first, the Hollywood actor Michelle Williams began
0:52.0	her career aged 16 on the TV drama Dawson's Creek. Now at 42 she's playing a version of Steven
0:58.8	Spielberg's mum in his semi-autobiographical new film The Fableman's. Mitzi Fableman is a concert
1:04.8	pianist who's put her artistic ambition aside to raise a family and is struggling to play a
1:10.4	supporting role to her computer genius husband. But the crucial relationship portrayed in the movie
1:16.1	is the one between Mitzi and her son Sam. Here she is suggesting to him a way he can process a highly
1:22.9	realistic train crash scene he saw at the cinema. Sammy we're going to use Daddy's camera to film it.
1:34.0	Only crash the train once okay then after we get the film developed you can watch it crash over
1:38.8	and over till it's not so scary anymore and your real train won't ever get broken. One more thing
1:47.2	darling let's not tell your father to be our secret movie just yours and mine okay.
1:59.7	While I sat down with Michelle Williams in a London hotel on Thursday and we got right into it.
2:05.6	Michelle thank you so much for your time and welcome to Woman's Hour. Thank you so much for having
2:10.4	me one honor. You get to play some you have got to play some iconic women Marilyn Monroe, Gwen
2:16.6	Ferdin. I'm going to put Jen from Dawson's Creek in there because she's an icon in my eyes.
	...

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