Octavia Spencer knows the character of Minny in The Help better than anyone else. Not only did she perform the part with the author on her book tour and in the audio book edition, but it was her outspoken ebullience and confidence that helped to inspire the character when Kathryn Stockett was first writing the story. She spoke to a small group of online journalists on the set in Mississippi last August.
“The character of Minny is very, very loosely based on me,” she told us.
I met Tate when both were production assistants on “A Time to Kill” in Jackson. My personality is not the best when I am hungry or hot. Kathryn Stockett said, “I’m writing a book” and I’m like, “Who isn’t, honey?” When I got it, I teased her about having a part — “Am I the love interest for Denzel?” I was afraid it was another Mammy. I hate “Gone With the Wind.” But then I read the first page – and stayed up all night.
She told us that Taylor is her best friend, like a brother. She went with Stockett on the book tour because the book is written in alternating first-person narratives and while Stockett was willing to write in dialect, she did not want to read aloud the African-American character’s voices. Spencer’s agents did not want her to go. It was pilot season, and they thought she should be available for parts that came up in television. But she went. Still, she was afraid she would not get the part in the movie. “Oh, God, there’s Mo’nique out there. And Queen Latifah,” she thought. But she got it.
Some of the challenges included driving the car from the 1960’s — no adjustable seat and no power breaks. And the clothes of the period: “Girdles and pointy bras. I’m a 200 lb woman – it’s all pushed in and sweaty.” This was a different experience for her as an actress. “I’m usually the humorous and sarcastic person in the drama. Good to get a chance to use a different set of muscles. There has to be that sense of what the danger was for these women.” And, like the other people we spoke to, she was grateful for the inspiration they drew from the location and history of the community. “Greenwood has a lot of history. I’m still reconciling that and having it for Minnie. The book makes that part of history palatable. It’s about the relationships and the bonds between the characters.” And she spoke about her hopes for what we can learn from a story set half a century ago. “What I love about this book is that we are having the conversations so that we can stop having the conversations.”
My Visit to the Set of ‘The Help’ — Coming Next Week
Posted on July 9, 2011 at 8:00 am
One of the biggest surprise best-sellers of the past ten years is The Help, the first novel by Jackson, Mississippi native Kathryn Stockett. It is now one of the most eagerly anticipated movies of the year. The story of the book takes place in Jackson in the early 1960’s, just before the Civil Rights era. It is told in the alternating voices of black and white female characters including two maids, one quiet and thoughtful, one impulsive and outspoken, and a naive and awkward but earnest young Southern woman just out of college. She decides to write a book with the stories of the maids of Jackson. The book was rejected 60 times before it was published, but Sockett persisted and it became an international best-seller.
But her lifelong friend believed in the book from the beginning. Actor Tate Taylor grew up with Stockett in Mississippi and he loved the book immediately. He optioned it before it was published so that by the time the big movie studios came to her with offers she explained that she had already sold the movie rights and if they wanted to make the movie Taylor would have to direct it. She knew his understanding of Jackson in the 1960’s was essential for the film. Fortunately, one of the most successful directors in Hollywood, Chris Columbus (the first two “Harry Potter” movies) agreed. He signed on as a producer to assure the studios that an experienced film-maker would be on hand. And another close friend, Octavia Spencer, the actress who inspired one of the key characters, the irrepressible Minny, was cast in the role.
I could not have been luckier in making my very first-ever visit to a movie set a trip to Mississippi eleven months ago to see the filming of “The Help.” And I am thrilled to be able to bring you the insights and interviews from my trip, including comments from Taylor, Columbus, Spencer, and co-stars Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Emma Stone, beginning Monday, July 11.
Interview: Brian Stelter and Andrew Rossi of ‘Page One’
Posted on June 28, 2011 at 8:00 am
“Page One” takes us behind the scenes at the New York times in a year of turmoil and transition. We see how its media reporters cover their own industry. We see the release of the first Wikileaks material and how it competes with and is reported on and interpreted by the main-est of the mainstream media. We see how the Times buys out and lays off experienced staff and brings on a college student who has been scooping them with his blog about television news. I sat with director Andrew Rossi and blogger-turned New York Times reporter Brian Stetler in the sunny courtyard of a Washington DC hotel to talk with them about reporting on the reporters and the future of journalism.
A recent law school class was asked how many of them read a paper newspaper every morning and not one hand went up. What does that mean about the future of newspapers and of news?
Stelter: People get the news in different sources. They may be getting links on Twitter or Facebook. As Katrina vanden Heuvel says in the film, there’s lots of information out there. That’s the predicament “Page One” is trying to address.
I thought the most powerful statement in the film was “Daniel Ellsberg needed us. Wikileaks does not.” And yet, the movie shows that reader do need the New York times to digest and interpret and verify the material.
Stelter: In a day where everyone can be a publisher, not everyone can be an editor. The film fundamentally is about editing. You see reporters and editors figuring out what’s news and what’s not news and in the case of Wikileaks, figuring out how to cover someone who is a publisher, but not an editor. Wikileaks does sometimes redact material and decide what not to post, but fundamentally they’re not bringing to bear those judgment calls that journalists are. I love the movie for those scenes with editors where you see them making judgment calls.
We’ve seen new media blow the whistle on failures of old media and old media expose the failures and misrepresentations of new media. Are we going to be in an endless cycle of “gotcha?”
Stelter: That’s an element going forward, one element of a complicated structure. It’s good that we can all truth squad each other. In the film you see the Times trying to decide how to handle a report by NBC news about the end of the Iraq war and eventually deciding not to write about it because it was, I don’t want to say an imagined end but a “mission accomplished” moment.
It was surprising to see in the film the way Brian Williams made NBC’s role a part of the story and fascinating to watch the reaction in the newsroom.
Stelter: It baffles my mind.
How do the changes in media and reporting affect elections and politics?
Stelter: We get more saturated by the day-to-day minutia of the campaigns. It’s easier to write about and follow along. What me may lose there is the broader picture. But the other change is the interactivity. Citizens now can prod journalists to cover the campaign differently. Readers, listeners, viewers can push us to do a better job. We’ve seen some of that already but we will see more going forward. That’s one reason transparency is such a positive force. We can talk back in a way we couldn’t before. I love when readers talk back to me and tell me what to improve on.
I was very intrigued by the use of music in the film. How did you select it?
Rossi: “Paper Tiger” is the song that plays beneath the credits. It’s by Beck. It has a very sort of somber but driving sound and David Carr’s final lines in the film that drive the song are “The New York Times does not need to be a monolith to survive.” I think that is one of the very important messages of the film. There are multiple voices and there shouldn’t be any Zeus character with thunderbolts saying, “This is the only truth that can be known.” “Paper Tiger,” there’s a double entendre because of the word “paper” but it is also an expression the Chinese have for something that seems scary but really is not. Mao used to use that expression to refer to Russia and England as monolithic powers that were really just made of paper. The song has the right audiophilic quality but also a double meaning. Paul Brill did the score. He’s worked a lot on films that treat very serious topics but in ways that are accessible and have an entertainment value. That is the type of palette we were going for in the film.
You include reporters who cover the business side of the media, but you do not include anyone from the business side of the New York Times. Why is that?
Rossi: There’s a high and firm wall between the newsroom and the corporate side. Bill Keller, the executive editor, authorized the project after various discussions and meetings and it was really done under the purview of the newsroom so we really never butt up against the corporate side. I did request an interview with the publisher and CEO, both of whom declined. The film is really trying to look at the journalism involved, though certainly we treat the financial obstacles.
What’s the difference between writing for the web and writing for print?
Stelter: Paper is so permanent, a one time shot to get it right and there’s a high cost to making a correction. If I write something for the web in the afternoon I can make it better all day and then put the final product in the paper. Corrections are the first symbol of us opening ourselves up to the public. This movie is just another form of transparency.
I so enjoyed Tina Fey’s book, Bossypants. It is rushed and uneven in places, understandable given her many full-time roles as producer, star, writer, mother, wife, and America’s sweetheart. Still, the book is very funny and very, very smart. Here are five of my favorite lines:
1. Start with a YES and see where that takes you….The second rule of improvisation is not only to say yes, but YES, AND. You are supposed to agree and add something of your own….It’s your responsibility to contribute.
2. There are no mistakes, only opportunities.
3. A wise friend once told me, “Don’t wear what fashion designers tell you to wear. Wear what they wear.”
4. : “The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready; it goes on because it’s 11:30.” Fey adds, “You have to try your hardest to be at the top of your game and improve every joke until the last possible second, and then you have to let it go.”
5. I suggest you model your strategy after the old Sesame Street film piece “Over! Under! Around! Through!”
. It is rushed and uneven in places, understandable given her many full-time roles as producer, star, writer, mother, wife, and America’s sweetheart. Still, the book is very funny and very, very smart. Here are five of my favorite lines: