Felicity Jones Is Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Feminist Biopic ‘On the Basis of Sex’

On the doorstep of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s 25-year anniversary as a Supreme Court justice, Felicity Jones will portray her early work in the fight for gender equality.

Armie Hammer, Justin Theroux, Kathy Bates, and Sam Waterston will join Jones on screen, lending their voices to a portrayal of 85-year-old Ginsburg’s early life and career. The movie will focus primarily on her work in a gender discrimination case brought before the U.S. Court of Appeals.

“We’re not asking you to change the country. That’s already happened without any court’s permission,” Jones as Ginsburg says in the trailer for On the Basis of Sex.

At the beginning of production on the film, director Mimi Leder said:

[The] story of Ruth Bader Ginsburg resonates … on so many levels – from the inspiring partnership she found in her marriage, to overcoming adversity as a woman and discovering the strength of her own voice, to her empathetic commitment to those in need of a voice no matter their gender, race, status or religious beliefs.

In these tumultuous times, stories like this speak to the heart of humanity and remind us what it means to lead with love and compassion as the way forward.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is an icon on the Left for her life’s work and the progressive nature of her rulings. She is known for having written the Supreme Court’s ruling in United States v. Virginia, which concluded that the Virginia Military Institute could not bar women from enrollment. Later, she dissented the majority decision in Bush v. Gore that resulted in the election of George W. Bush as president.

In June 2015, Ginsburg was instrumental in the solidification of then-President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act in King v. Burwell and the following day in the national legalization of same-sex marriage. She was a public detractor of President Donald Trump during his 2016 election campaign — for which she later apologized — and is a vocal advocate for the #MeToo movement.

Jones was last seen in Disney’s Star Wars: Rogue One. On the Basis of Sex will premiere on Christmas Day 2018.