Tilda Cobham-Hervey admits she really didn’t know a lot about singer Helen Reddy when the script for the biopic “I Am Woman” reached her several years ago.
“At the time, I knew the song ‘I Am Woman’ and I knew Helen Reddy’s name, but I’m very ashamed that I didn’t know a lot more about her,” she says. “And it has been one of my greatest joys to learn about her life.
“She’s a truly extraordinary woman, and it deeply changed me now that I’ve gone through this incredible process of just learning about all the amazing work that she did, and all of the other songs that were massive hits as well.”
And there were plenty of huge hits for Reddy, who during her peak in the ’70s nabbed three No. 1 singles with “I Am Woman,” “Delta Dawn,” and “Angie Baby,” as well as a trio that cracked the Top 10 in “Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress),” “You and Me Against the World,” and “Ain’t No Way to Treat a Lady.”
The movie, which like both Reddy and Cobham-Hervey, was born in Australia, brings a well-deserved reconsideration to Reddy. The film explores not just her chart success but her role writing and singing “I Am Woman,” the unofficial anthem for the women’s movement that endures to this day.
Cobham-Hervey, who turns 26 later this month, says that as she explored the life of the now-78-year-old Reddy she found much with which to connect.
“Me and Helen grew up in quite a similar way,” she says by phone from Down Under recently. “Her parents were vaudeville stars and also had a radio show, and Helen started performing very young.
“My parents are both in the arts — my mom’s a dancer and my dad’s a lighting designer — and I grew up very much in the back of theaters. I also started performing very young in the circus growing up.”
The kind of driven personality that led Reddy to leave Australia for New York City and the shaky promise of a recording audition — as a single mother with a 3-year-old daughter in tow, too — felt similar too, says the actress who primarily lives in Los Angeles today.
“I definitely feel I’m very driven and really love working, and still feel the responsibility of making work and standing behind what you make,” Cobham-Hervey says. “I think she really had that in her as well, so I can definitely connect on that level.
“She has a lot more confidence than I do, though,” she says and laughs. “She’s a lot braver than I am. And you know I think I was really inspired by that: her confidence, her bravery, and her authenticity. The way she managed to really keep a sense of herself.”
In “I Am Woman,” Reddy is shown finding her path into the music business almost in spite of her marriage to talent manager Jeff Wald (Evan Peters). Wald, though he’d end up one of the biggest names in the business, couldn’t get Reddy any traction in L.A. until she pushed him to get her a shot at Capitol Records.
She’s also seen dealing with the casual sexism of the day, such as a scene where Capitol execs — all men — ask her if she doesn’t think “I Am Woman” sounds a little too angry for the radio.
“Some of the earliest things, the things she was up against, I was like, ‘C’mon, that’s absurd,’” Cobham-Hervey says of the “Mad Men”-esque sexism of the late ’60s and early ’70s in the screenplay. “And you do your research, and I talked to my grandma. She was like, ‘Nope, it was like that.’”
Reddy’s friendship with fellow Aussie and pioneering female rock writer Lillian Roxon (Danielle Macdonald) forms a secondary narrative in both its portrayal of Reddy’s connection to the women’s movement and also in how her drive for success hurt their friendship.
That thread also shows how “I Am Woman” came to be an unofficial anthem of the movement then and now.
“Today, you go to a women’s march and it’s very rare to not see at least one or two signs, maybe a lot more, that say, ‘I am woman,’ or ‘Hear me roar,’ on them,” Cobham-Hervey says. ‘I think that just shows the incredible power of her song and how many people it’s affected.
“It truly has become an anthem for women everywhere.”
Director Unjoo Moon met Reddy at an awards ceremony a few years back and worked with her and her two children to develop the story, which covers Reddy’s life over 25 years or so. Ex-husband Wald also participated, even though his drug use is portrayed in the film as both the ruin of their marriage and her finances. (Wald has spoken about his drug use and recovery, and a line on screen at the end of the film notes he’s been clean and sober now for more than three decades.)
Cobham-Hervey delivers a terrific performance, playing an appealing character in a wide range of emotional settings. She ages subtly from Reddy’s mid-20s to late-40s and seamlessly melds her physical performance vocals provided by Australian singer Chelsea Cullen.
“I really hate a film where it suddenly feels like another voice is coming out and there’s a lip-sync going on,” she says. “So I actually sang live on the day, and I think that really helped.
“And I sang every day for five or six weeks in rehearsal for three hours every morning,” she said. “I really studied the songs to get the timing as perfect as possible.”
By the end of all that, Cobham-Hervey knew a whole lot more of Reddy’s music.
“My favorite one to perform is ‘Angie Baby,’” she says. “Had a lot of fun during that song. It’s a wacky song when you really get into the lyrics, and I just loved the way she performs it. I loved her moves.
“‘You and Me Against the World’ I think is a really beautiful song, and on her recording of it, it’s got her daughter’s voice in the beginning of it, which I think is just so beautiful.’ “
(She also notes that thanks to the film both Reddy and her granddaughter Lily Donat are on the Australian pop charts simultaneously today, Reddy for the re-release of the title track, Donat for “Revolution,” an original song she sings in her small part in the film.)
Today, Cobham-Hervey says she thinks women experience much more freedom and equality than Reddy did early in her life. But there’s still more for which to fight.
“In terms of the (movie) industry, I really hope that we keep seeing more female directors and writers creating work about their own experiences as women — told from the perspective of women,” she says. “I’m seeing that more now, and I think that’s really exciting.
“I think also that that translates into everything,” Cobham-Hervey says. “The way I feel about feminism — I think Helen would feel very much the same — is it truly is about equality, and that means it’s equality as much for men being allowed to be vulnerable and tender, and for people of color to be able to get the same opportunities.
“So I think there’s a ways to go, and I’m really hoping that the film and just the time we’re living in right now, we all take a moment to pause and reflect.
“I definitely have been inspired by telling Helen’s story and learning about all the things that she had to overcome to get to where she is,” Cobham-Hervey says. “I hope that I caught a bit of her confidence and bit of her passion for using her voice and standing up for what she believes in.
“And I hope this film can do that for other people, too.”
