She soon meets future husband/manager Jeff Wald (Evan Peters), and although he wants to champion her, she has to push him to fight for her career. It’s a classic dreamer-in-the-big-city beginning, as Helen endures dismissive interactions with male record execs and club owners, leaning on her fellow Aussie and only friend Lilian for advice and support.
The film begins in 1966 in New York City as young Helen, her toddler daughter Traci in tow, pursues her shot at a record contract after winning the singing competition show “Bandstand” in Australia. “I Am Woman” follows the biopic formula closely. In the biopic “I Am Woman,” Reddy’s story is brought to life by a team of Australian women: screenwriter Emma Jensen, director Unjoo Moon, star Tilda Cobham-Hervey, who portrays Reddy, and Danielle Macdonald, who co-stars as Reddy’s friend and legendary rock journalist Lilian Roxon, the person attributed with introducing Reddy to the nascent feminist movement in the late 1960s. The unofficial anthem of the women’s rights movement, and now, International Women’s Day, the song gives voice to female empowerment with the unforgettable refrain, “I am woman, hear me roar.” Dubbed “the Queen of Housewife Rock,” 1970s Australian songstress Helen Reddy may not have maintained long-lasting name recognition among younger generations, but her 1971 song “I Am Woman” remains an indelible cultural touchstone and rallying cry.
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