The Telluride Film Festival premiered the movie about the 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs; "Dolores" tells the story of the woman who co-founded the United Farm Workers union.
'Battle of the Sexes': For Billie Jean King, the match was about social change, not tennis
Billie Jean King doesn't go to a lot of film festivals, but she was among the most celebrated attendees at this year's Telluride Film Festival where "Battle of the Sexes" had its world premiere.
The movie, directed by Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton ("Little Miss Sunshine"), is based on King's life and, in particular, the circumstances leading up to and surrounding her 1973 tennis match against Bobby Riggs.
In Telluride, King told The Frame's John Horn: "I knew this match was about social change. It wasn't about tennis."
Riggs had challenged King to a match that became a massive spectacle and huge television event. Riggs was a provocative showman and chauvinist with a gambling addiction who was determined to prove that a woman’s place was in the bedroom or the kitchen — but not the tennis court. King had been the number one female tennis player in the world, and she was deep in the fight to earn equal prize money for women on the circuit.
To put it in perspective, when Billie Jean King won the U.S. Open in 1972, she took home $10,000 in prize money. The men’s singles winner that year, Ilie Nastase, took home $25,000.
Played in the Houston Astrodome with 30,000 in attendance and 50 million watching on TV, the match was a huge cultural event. It galvanized public debate over gender equity and popularized tennis. Now, through this feature film, due out on Sept. 22, generations will learn more of what was happening behind the scenes.
Below are some highlights of Billie Jean King's conversation with John Horn.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
What did she want to get right in the film, "Battle of the Sexes":
All I wanted was to get the essence of the fight for equality and what we were going through on all fronts and because of our gender — even though I don't like to bring the gender card out very often … Also, I wanted them to understand the challenges that I had off the court in trying to figure out my sexuality. I thought that was really important. And I thought that if this can help one person be more comfortable in their skin, if it can help empower people — both men and women — I'm very big about having all genders involved, not just women.
On how the movie reflected the bigger things at stake:
It's about being your authentic self ... I didn't get comfortable in my own skin until I was 51. So this was just the beginning of a long, long journey.
Title IX was passed in June, '72. This is '73 when we played. That was very important to me. And I knew this match was about social change. It wasn't about tennis.
On John McEnroe's recent comments to NPR about Serena Williams:
First of all, John wants a match with Serena. He's been wanting it for 15 years. So I don't know about that. The point is the 700 isn't right. [McEnroe said Williams would be ranked about 700th on the men's tour.] But what gets me irritated — and, of course, I love John, we live two blocks away from each other so we know each other well — is that the men keep bringing this up. We have never said we're better than the men. We're not better. They're better because of their androgens. They have bigger hearts. They're stronger. Especially their upper bodies — not so much the legs. It's pretty equal, actually, with leg [strength]. But the men are just stronger. So we, as women tennis players, never [said] we're better than them. And in the movie, actually, Emma addresses it pretty well.
On the fight for equal pay for equal work:
I think it's changed some. ... When we played that match [in 1973], white women were getting 59 cents [of every dollar made by men], and women of color were in the 40s and Latinas were making less. It's interesting, even today, Asian women make 90%. But white women are around 80 ... But we need equal pay for equal work ... It's the men who have the power to do this ... Marc Benioff owns Salesforce, it’s a cloud company, and he's done that ... And he has an equality officer that reports directly to him. I've started a Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative and that’s what were trying to do is get the CEOs of companies [to commit to equal pay] — and they can do this overnight if they want.
On how the film reminds her of that 1973 match:
"Battle of the Sexes" takes me right back to those moments in ‘73 and the pressure I was feeling. I think they portrayed it really well in the movie. All the challenges and people running around and just — how do you stay focused through all that chaos? But my bottom line was I had to win. And I wanted to keep Title IX strong. I wanted people to think differently about us.
I really had a lot on the agenda, and what happened is tennis overnight exploded in this country. And the next year the men and the women for the first time got network contracts, and they never had that.
To hear John Horn's full interview, click on the player above. Also, subscribe to The Frame podcast on iTunes
Emma Stone says she and Steve Carell got equal pay for 'Battle of the Sexes'
It's easy to say that, in her new movie, Emma Stone trades in her "La La Land" tap shoes for tennis sneakers. But "Battle of the Sexes" is about much more than tennis and a specific match between a man and a woman. It's a film about gender equity, equal pay and the struggle to be your authentic self.
In the film, Stone plays Billie Jean King, who in 1973 was one of the top women's tennis players in the world, and she advocated for women players to be paid the same prize money as men. She had been challenged to a match by the 55-year old retired tennis champ, Bobby Riggs (Steve Carrell), a provocative showman and chauvinist with a gambling addiction who was determined to prove that a woman’s place was in the bedroom or the kitchen — not the tennis court.
Despite being a leader on the court and in the press advocating for women’s rights, King was in private turmoil. She was in the closet and falling in love with a woman while married to a man. She felt tremendous responsibility to succeed on the court — not only for her fellow tennis players, but also for equal rights for all women. The stage was set for a match that King says was really about social change and not tennis.
Stone worked closely with King to develop her role for the film. And she confirmed that the film walked the talk when it came to equal pay for equal work. When The Frame host John Horn asked if Stone had to fight for equal pay as her co-star Steve Carell, she replied: "We were paid equally on the film."
John spoke with Stone at the Telluride Film Festival, where she talked about how she got into the mindset of playing Billie Jean King in "Battle of the Sexes."
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:
What Stone learned from Billie Jean King's story for the film:
I wanted to know as much as possible about her story, definitely. It was helpful for me to really try and key into her in that exact time period, rather than the kind of circumspection that she has now, where she has 40-ish years distance from that time period and her life. So it was amazing to watch interviews or read articles of her back then, the way she was presenting herself, the sound of her voice back then, which is different than it is now ... I could feel a lot of changes within her from then to now.
What Billie Jean King taught Stone about acting:
One of the greatest things she did as a good coach — which she is — is right when I met her, she said, What do you like to do the most? I said, I like to act, I like to read, I like to dance. She said, Well, this is dancing. That's all this is. This is my stage, the court is my stage, I am a performer, and that's what I'm feeling the entire time so we relate completely on that.
And that was really kind of an amazing insight right away. And then reading "Pressure is a Privilege" and anything she wrote about visualization ... It was fascinating to do scenes and realize that two people in a scene are kind of like two people on a court hitting the ball back and forth ... It was very useful for the process of actually playing her to use the visualization that she used on the court. I just tried to apply as many as her principles into my life as myself, and obviously as playing her, and it was massively helpful.
On gender equality today:
In sports, I think that there has been a lot of great forward movement. In tennis, certainly, thanks in huge part to Billie Jean. In other industries, across the board, obviously there's not pay equality, so it's just a fight that is continuing on and on and on. And hopefully this will not be a conversation we have to have for much longer.
On what modern audiences can take from this film:
These are the shoulders on which we stand. Someone like Billie Jean is such a huge part of our country's history and LGBTQ history and there's just so much that she's done. It's just an honor to tell that story and to introduce it to a generation like mine. My generation was not around for this match and has heard of Billie Jean, but maybe doesn't understand the extent of this fight. And I think its really important to know who has come before us to get us to where we are today and hopefully galvanize within us now.
To hear John Horn's full interview with Emma Stone, click on the player above.
Activist Dolores Huerta is the subject of a new documentary, but her fight isn't over yet
The new documentary, "Dolores," chronicles the life and work of activist and union organizer Dolores Huerta. Along with Cesar Chavez, Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers union in the 1960s.
But for years, Huerta didn't get nearly the same recognition that Chavez did for her contributions to the UFW and farmworker rights.
Just one example: the iconic slogan, "Sí se puede" (or "Yes we can"), is often attributed to Chavez, but it was actually coined by Huerta.
Now, at 87-years-old, Huerta is finally getting the credit she's due, thanks to a new documentary titled "Dolores." The film, which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, is executive produced by the musician Carlos Santana and written and directed by Peter Bratt. It airs on PBS on March 26.
And as evidence that Huerta isn't slowing down yet, she spoke at the at the women’s march that was held at Sundance, preaching a message of solidarity with marches in Washington and across the country:
The Frame's John Horn spoke with Huerta and Bratt in Park City, Utah.
Interview Highlights
Decades ago, you were organizing farmworkers over a variety of issues. How is that work different today?
Huerta: At that time, in the late '60s, early '70s a lot of organizations were just in formation. The Greens were just starting to organize, the LGBT movement was starting to organize, we had the third wave of the women's movement that was coming forward...
So, we have a lot of these organizations that were just being born out of the chaos of the '60s and '70s that are now very strong and they have strong foundations. So, in some respects, we're better equipped right now to be able to withstand whatever comes down in the next four years and to continue organizing to overcome and keep the progressive movement going forward.
You're here as the star of your documentary, but you've always been more interested in the workers, not the people leading the workers. Was it uncomfortable for you to be the subject of this film?
Huerta: If you can take the poorest the most discriminated group of workers in our country that have been maligned for so many decades and yet show how they came together, how they were able to overcome the president of the United States — Richard Nixon, governor of California Ronald Reagan, the most powerful agricultural interest in the state of California — and be able to win their victories of getting the right to organize...
...so this is a message I believe, that I hope people get from this film. If those farmer workers, most of them immigrants, if they can do this without having a formal education, how much more can we do? We who speak the English language, who are citizens, who have formal educations, who have resources — how much more can we do?
There's a lot of amazing archival footage, along with some contemporary interviews. What are the images, documents or interviews that stood out from the past that really illustrated Dolores' story?
Bratt: Dolores and I, we locked horns a little bit because I told her, 'It has to be about you.' And I think Dolores by her nature, she's always focused on others and empowering others, and I think that was difficult for her. But I think you create empathy in people and understand when you focus on the person.
We knew wanted to tell a compelling, moving story that would inspire people, but at the same time we wanted to create a historical record, because she had been left out... you can actually see her through the decades, and we thought that would be very powerful and very compelling.
How does the current political climate shape the way in which this film will be received and the world into which, it will be released?
Bratt: It was tempting to throw the camera on and say, 'Hey Dolores, let's go back out and get some more footage.' But I think it's really important to emphasize and point out that the struggle in our community for racial justice... it's been going on for 500 years, man...
Huerta: And I just want to say one thing to that. People in our country do not understand how our country was built, and even now with immigrants that are doing all of the heavy work — which is one thing that the movie does show, feeding the nation. So, there's no appreciation, there's no gratitude there, there's no recognition.
So, I think the one thing that may come out of all this is that when we see the ugly face of racism and what it has brought us to in our society, that then, everybody has to say, 'OK, it's time that we end this cancer.'
“Dolores” airs March 27 at 9 p.m. on PBS SoCal. Check local listings in other markets.