Twentieth Century Woman

“A Will of Their Own” dramatizes not only the struggles but also the progress that American women have made during this century.

But the NBC miniseries is not for women only.

“The story is propelled by relationships and not just from the women’s side,” says co-producer and writer Susan Nanus. “There are a lot of unhappy marriages and family relationships that are very complicated, and I think men can relate to them. They are not just female emotions.”

“Will” star Lea Thompson recalls that her husband, director Howard Deutsch, even had tears in his eyes while he watched the five-hour drama, which begins Sunday.

“My husband was so sweet,” she says. “I was so surprised. I said to him, ‘Why would a guy like this?’ He said, ‘Because men have daughters. Men have mothers and men have sisters.’ ”

Like “Ragtime,” the sweeping generational saga blends historical figures and situations with a fictional story. Thompson plays Amanda Steward, a photojournalist who recounts the struggles in her life during this century.

She witnesses women’s fight for the right to vote, is wounded during World War I, gives birth to a child out of wedlock and is forced into a loveless marriage. Though she becomes a successful news photographer, her job estranges her from her only child.

Thomas Gibson stars as James, the married photojournalist who is the father of Amanda’s daughter and the love of her life. John Shea is Jonathan, the staid doctor Amanda is forced to marry. Ellen Burstyn plays Amanda’s rich, stern grandmother. Faye Dunaway plays birth control advocate Margaret Sanger and Sonia Braga is the leader of a migrant farm worker’s strike.

The production, from executive producers David and Mark Wolper (“Roots,” “The Thorn Birds”), was directed by Karen Arthur. Nanus believes most young women today have no “idea how hard life was for their mothers or grandmothers.”

“I think the best aspect of this miniseries is that [young women] will look at their mothers and grandmothers and say, ‘Wow, I didn’t know you couldn’t vote 78 years ago,’ ” says executive producer Lynn Roth. “It was a mere 78 years ago. That is a staggering notion.”

Adds Thompson: “I think it’s very important to remember to be grateful and be proud of our mothers and grandmothers.”

Nanus and Roth liken “Will” to a women’s “Roots.”

“Susan and I were having lunch and we said, ‘Let’s do a miniseries that would show the history of women as told through one family,’ ” says Roth. “We started thinking about it and we said we needed one character who was born, came of age, grew up and experienced the century.”

Lindy DeKoven, executive vice president of miniseries and movies for NBC, says she was immediately taken with the proposal. “This seemed to have the richness and texture we were looking for,” she explains. “There is a little bit of the history of the women’s movement in there and that was a story that we wanted to do some way and somehow.”

The miniseries, says DeKoven, is “entertaining and enjoyable, but you walk away saying that you’ve learned something. One of the things that was very interesting to me about it is that women are still facing some of the same issues today that they were struggling with 50 years ago. I think there is a line in it: ‘It’s 1917 and we still don’t have control over our own bodies.’ How often have we heard that in the last few years?”

Thompson’s dramatic turn in “Will” is much different from her comedic work as artist Caroline Duffy on the NBC comedy “Caroline in the City.”

“It was a learning experience for me; just trying to weave the character took a lot of thought,” says Thompson, who is the mother of two young girls. “The character was complex and went through such different phases in her life. Dramatically, she went through so many different changes.”

What she found so fascinating about Amanda is that the character makes a lot of mistakes during her long life. “But a lot of it is based on her frustration and her lack of freedom that makes her have to make the choices between her career and her life and makes her have to get into a marriage that’s not happy,” Thompson says.

“What is deeper about the thing is that when people are not free, they mess up their lives,” she says. “They do terrible things. They’re forced to make bad decisions.”

A lot of the emotional underpinnings of Thompson’s character comes from her own mother.

“Amanda is an artist and a mother and was trying to deal with both in a time when you weren’t allowed to be both and weren’t supported.” Thompson’s mother raised five children but never gave up her artistic endeavors.

“She always was an artist and she couldn’t not do it,” the actress recalls. “It was hard for me to understand as a child. She would say, ‘I have to paint.’ She knew she had to do it to survive. She would paint all night and we would get up and get ourselves off to school. I admire her for that now. I just think that people always need to remember that the best thing for everybody is that people have to have the hope of at least becoming what they really feel they want to be.”

“A Will of Their Own” airs Sunday at 8 p.m. and Monday at 9 p.m. on NBC.