Grace McLean (‘Suffs’) enjoys the ‘dissonance’ of portraying the patriarchy of Woodrow Wilson in a woman’s body [Exclusive Video Interview]
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“I try to think about what it would be like to just walk through the world with blissful confidence,” explains Grace McLean when describing her portrayal of president Woodrow Wilson in “Suffs.” The actress is one of the only people in the all-female cast to portray a male character. In McLean’s case, it’s the man who constantly stood in the way of the suffragist movement. “There’s no apology ever,” says the actress of his expectations for deference, “and that’s unfamiliar for me, but I don’t think it’s unfamiliar for Woodrow Wilson and men of that type.” Watch the exclusive video interview above.
“Suffs” follows the American suffragist leader Alice Paul (Shaina Taub) in a years-long struggle to earn women the right to vote. Much effort within this movement is focused on obtaining the backing of Woodrow Wilson. But the suffragists must constantly face off with a man who sees no need for the patriarchy to share any power with what he considers the lesser sex.
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McLean enjoys the “dissonance” in seeing a woman’s body inhabit the typical characteristics associated with a powerful man in this era. “We’re not hiding the woman, I mean we’re putting on the clothes or putting on the wig, but I’m a girl,” she explains. McLean describes using “a real daddy kind of a mentality” to bring Wilson’s supreme sense of confidence to life.
The contrast is brought to life in “Ladies,” McLean’s signature number in the musical. Wilson sings appreciatively about the delicate qualities of women, and how they must be kept in their place. He is not plotting in some secret lair like a classic villain. Instead his words provoke knowing laughter from the 2024 audience, who can see just how clueless he is. “The worldview of the patriarchy is not an aggressive, an outwardly-aggressive worldview against these women,” reveals McLean. “The sinister thing about it is that it just is deaf and blind and does not take them into account.”
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Like Taub, who wrote the score for “Suffs” in addition to starring in the show, McLean is also a singer-songwriter. She’s written a musical of her own (“In the Green”) and has a pop album releasing on May 10th. But the creative is quick to say she doesn’t “feel bound by the rules of pop.” The debut single “Albertine” displays an ethereal quality more typical of Kate Bush than Broadway. “I’m always looking for the emotional logic, and the emotional through line, of a song or a story or a narrative,” describes McLean, “and emotions are like, they’re illogical! So I’m interested in finding a way to reflect that.”
When asked if she would ever bring her signature sound to Broadway, the actress admits that her recent musical was “really niche.” It features live looping, and tells the story of a 12th century German mystic. It probably isn’t the first thing one thinks of for commercial theater, but that’s perfectly fine with McLean. “What’s really cool is other people are doing ‘In The Green.’ Productions have happened of it across the country,” she gushes “Broadway would be cool, but the fact that other people want to do it themselves and dive into it, and are not scared of its challenge is the greatest compliment I could ever ask for.”
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