Nash (“When They See Us,” “Claws”) calls it a
blessing to play an “unsung hero.”
Kennedy was “absolutely amazing. And that
mouth, man!” said Nash, who watched footage
of her in action and used it to shape her
performance. “On set, I was like, ’Listen, do you
want me to say these words, or do you want me
to talk how this woman really spoke? Because
she didn’t have a filter.”
A wealth of books by Schlafly, Steinem and
others was part of the material that helped “craft
this highly researched and very clear-eyed view
of this time period,” executive producer Stacey
Sher said during a Q&A with reporters.
Making the series inclusive, both on screen and
off, was never in doubt, said writer-creator Waller
(“Mad Men,” “Desperate Housewives”), also an
executive producer.
“It was always obvious to me that you can’t tell
the story of second-wave feminism without
telling the story of intersectional feminism, so
it was obvious that I would include women
of color leaders in the story,” Waller said. “The
question for me was how to do that when your
way into the series is Phyllis Schlafly?”
Schlafly was a defense hawk and a onetime
Republican congressional candidate who is
introduced in the series as intent on derailing
a U.S.-Soviet nuclear arms pact. Then the
proposed ERA, approved by Congress with
bipartisan support and nearing the required
number of state ratifications, caught Schlafly’s
eye. She argued it would subvert, not secure,
women’s rights and, if both sexes could be
drafted, put national security at risk.