‘From its first preview on stage, producers were contacting me to make it a film’

Production on the movie adaptation of human rights lawyer turned writer Suzie Miller’s award-winning play, Prima Facie, is underway. The sharp and devastating work stars Cynthia Erivo as a brilliant young barrister who defends men accused of sexual assault who is then herself assaulted. Miller, who also wrote the film’s screenplay, has recently returned from London where filming is taking place.

How was it being on set?
I found that most of my work was done prior to the production going into the shoot, and as such, I had spent a very long period on my own writing, speaking with producers, talking visual ideas with the director, Susanna White, and Cynthia Erivo, who stars in the show. Both are strong women with clear ideas, and were both so respectful of my process and the writing. They were so supportive of the writing that there wasn’t much more for me to do on set.

When the production began, the producers, Australians Greer Simpkin and David Joswey of Bunya Australia, Kevin Loader of UK Free Range Films, and Embankment UK, gave us the green light to have a few weeks of rehearsal. This was an absolute gift: we could read the scenes with various actors, and I engaged in meaningful discussions with all of them, especially Susanna and Cynthia. I was able to sculpt and craft some of the scenes and dialogue specifically around the cast, allowing the actors to embody the role. I love actors, and I love directors, and as I come from theatre, I’m a big collaborator, so that part of the process was enjoyable and familiar to me.

Once the shoot began, there were so many people on set and on location. We shot all over London and built the Old Bailey courtroom in a studio. The whole scheduling and moving parts of a film are extraordinary. And while the numbers in a company for West End plays are in the 100s, it was amazing to see all the crew on the film at work constantly. I found myself present throughout much of the shoot, sometimes bowing out to go home and do some work. For a writer, it was much less stressful than a large theatre rehearsal and production.

Overall, I found the experience extraordinary; the producer was inclusive of all the artists, everyone was so collaborative, and there was an incredible feeling on set of unity and dedication to making this film for the one in three women who are subjected to gendered sexual violence. There were tears, laughter and fantastic discussions. Every single person who worked on the film was someone who completely believed in what we were all doing.

How was working with Cynthia?
Working with Cynthia was a gift, she is such an accomplished actor and at the peak of her career. Having intense discussions about the issues the screenplay raised were bonding and life-changing for us all. Much of this talk infused elements of the film. I adored the time with her, and with the other actors – all top in their craft - and of course with my director Susanna, who has been with me on this project since the beginning. During the rehearsal period, where we could share intimacies and create the bonds for the main character, Tessa’s, family, everyone brought their stories and trust.

How different is writing for film versus theatre?
In theatre, you’re wrangling with ideas and hanging a story on those ideas so that the story engages an audience to interrogate the subtext and the social issues that run alongside. In film, you’re writing a story told through a visual language, so the script must provide the space and the provocations to allow a director to create their own visual language with an audience.

Were you able to flesh out the characters more?
Absolutely. In the theatre script, there is one person playing every single role – Jodie Comer did that magnificently. In the screenplay, every single character must be cast, and as such, needed even more nuance, visual elements and backstories, so that different actors could embody each role.

The elements and life experience as a Black woman that Cynthia – and so many of her cast mates – bring also allowed for a different set of dynamics and perspectives. The women on set who shared their life experiences and shaped the film are so very much part of the screen version of Tessa’s family dynamics, her and her friends’ lifestyles, and show us a unique version of the story where the law is an even more difficult obstacle with intersectionality; that is where gender, class and race meet in the legal system that was not built for any of these aspects of people.

The play dealt with gender and class, and now we have worked together to create a further lens, pushing the story further into the experience of all women. Because sexual violence happens everywhere and to women of all backgrounds, and the law has so many blinkers when it comes to class, gender and race, it is infused with many of the barriers that prohibit access, understanding and voice that the rest of the community is infused with.

Did you ever imagine the play would be adapted for film?
Once the play went to an audience, I realised that it had a much bigger part to play than I had ever dreamt. When I first sat in my small, dark office to write Prima Facie as a play, I wasn’t even sure that it would reach an audience.

From its first preview on stage, producers were contacting me to make it a film. I was excited to start thinking about it as a screenplay because it lends itself so perfectly to the screen. The film is so different to the play, in particular because there are a number of actors playing the many roles that the play had one actor invent, and while both the first actors who played Tessa, Sheridan Harbridge and Jodie Comer, did an extraordinary job, seeing those [characters] come to life in their full embodiment, laughing and crying, having their own story and infusion from different actors is a complete reimagining of the story. It is not like having a play go to screen, it is like an entire reinvention.

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