'Iron Lady' Co-Star Says Film Gave Her New Appreciation for Thatcher

Actress Alexandra Roach plays the formidable Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the upcoming biopic “The Iron Lady.”

Roach’s Thatcher is the awkward but determined young woman who first enters the political system, while Oscar-winner Meryl Streep conveys Thatcher as the leader who rattled England’s political system during the 1980s.

Neither Streep nor Roach appear to be fans of Thatcher’s political career, but Roach says starring in the movie opened her eyes to a part of Thatcher’s legacy she can’t help but admire.

Asked whether she sympathized with Thatcher, Roach said, “I’m an actress so I wanted to play her as truthfully and as fully as possible. I was definitely not judging her. We don’t agree on a lot of things, but when I was filming at the Houses of Parliament and I had all these older men around me in dark suits, it kind of struck me what she did for women, what she did as a woman. She came from a humble background. To come from that and have ambition and drive, just knowing what she wanted out of life, you cant help but admire that.”

Roach’s upcoming films include “Anna Karenina” and “Trap for Cinderella,” both due sometime next year.

You can read the rest of the Indiewire.com interview here.