‘The Help’ — Octavia Spencer

Posted on July 12, 2011 at 3:38 pm

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.”

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Actors Behind the Scenes

‘The Help’ — Viola Davis

Posted on July 11, 2011 at 12:00 pm

In my opinion, Viola Davis is the finest actress in movies today. In “Doubt,” she gave the best performance of the year in one short but very powerful scene as the mother of a boy who may have been abused. She has made an indelible impression in brief appearances in movies as sympathetic therapists in “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” and “Trust,” best friends in “Eat Pray Love” and “Nights in Rodanthe,” as a mayor in “Law Abiding Citizen” and as a space ship captain in “Solaris.” It was truly a thrill to speak to her about playing the strong, quiet, principled maid Aibileen in “The Help.”

Like the other people working on the movie, she was very aware of the about the influence of the setting. “It’s easier to do this because you’re in Mississippi. It’s a different world. A different energy that informs everything you do. Going into Baptist Town you feel the spirits of the past.”

We asked about developing a Mississippi accent. “The accent is a work in progress. I was born in South Carolina and raised in Rhode Island. It’s my mother’s voice I hear in my head. I don’t want the accent to be as strong as it is in the book. I’ve read the criticism about the dialect online. I don’t want anything to distract from the character. I want to make it accessible.” Her research about the era included books, the Eyes on The Prize PBS series, “a documentary about maids, my mother, relatives, everybody.” She also remembered a teacher in college who was part of Freedom summer and came back to campus to talk about it.

Asked about the challenges of the story, she frankly acknowledged, “There’s a lot of pressure. There are two stories going on. It’s the experience of a lot of Caucasians with substitute mothers and the story of these maids, my mother’s story, who these women were when they went home. That’s the part that makes it a dirty secret, not palatable. That’s the story of those who worked for other people. Abeline was born in 1911. By she has has 53 years of incredible history. You feel an incredible responsibility not to make it sanitized. That’s what Hollywood always does.”

And she spoke of the challenges of playing a character who by nature and culture seldom says what she is thinking. “Your internal dialog has got to be different from what you say…. makes it so rich.” It was sometimes very difficult to do. “You feel the rage, the frustration, the repression, the intense level of sadness, of going to your grave without ever realizing your dreams and hopes. Now we can speak our minds more. To be silent so much – it’s hard not to carry that rage when you leave the set.”

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Actors

Bravo to AMC Theaters for the ‘Sensory Friendly’ Film Series

Posted on July 11, 2011 at 9:00 am

I was delighted to hear that AMC theaters is reaching out to family members with autism spectrum issues with monthly “Sensory Friendly” film showings. Participating theaters are schedules to run the following films at 10 am, with lower sound and light and a supportive and understanding atmosphere.

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.

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Based on a book Behind the Scenes

Horrible Bosses

Posted on July 7, 2011 at 6:05 pm

Three old friends who work for deranged, abusive bosses decide that the only solution is a “Strangers on a Train”-style murder swap in a lightweight comedy sustained by recession-era resentment fantasies, some attention to plot structure, and a bunch of top comic performers enjoying themselves so much it is impossible not to join them. As confirmed by the outtakes over the closing credits, even the stars were shocked into laughter by some of the more outrageous moments in the film. This is what “Bad Teacher” wanted to be, cheerfully offensive with some forward propulsion. It’s a wish fulfillment story with the vicarious pleasure of revenge and of seeing other people get into a lot of trouble for taking the risks we are much too careful to attempt.

You can see that Jennifer Aniston, looking like an inhumanly idealized CGI version of herself, is so happy to be out of those cloying rom-coms that she has a total blast as a predatory and sexually voracious dentist who only gets more excited by humiliating her assistant (Charlie Day as Dale). Even her dentist music plays “Crazy.” Colin Farrell, unrecognizable as a paunchy cokehead with a hangover, clearly enjoys playing a nunchucking nutball whose primary influence on home decoration appears to Uday Hussein. And Kevin Spacey, who pretty much owns the bad boss role brings it once again as a paranoid, manipulative bully.

No wonder Kurt (Jason Sudeikis), Nick (Jason Bateman), and Dale feel trapped. None of them can find another job. Horrible bosses don’t hesitate to threaten bad references and the job market is awful. A high school classmate who was once a successful financier at Lehman Brothers is now reduced to, well, let’s just say he has his hand out. So, being the dim-witted play by the rules guys that they are, with their only knowledge of crime coming from Dale’s intensive study of the “Law & Order” franchise, they try to find an assassin to knock off the horrible bosses, reasoning that “We don’t clean our apartments or cut our hair,” so why should they do their own killing? They look for help first on the internet (and wonder whether they should have a cheese plate to offer the hired killer) and then try some random guy because he is black and has a scary nickname and lot of tattoos and therefore must be a badass (Jamie Foxx, very funny as Jones).

Unlike “Bad Teacher,” this film recognizes that the outrageous and shocking behavior works only if there is a solidly structured plot to keep things moving. It is as funny to see how some of the elements from the first half come back in the second as it is to see Aniston’s sexual predator, spraying Day’s crotch with the hose from the spit sink and singing out, “Shabbat Shalom!” at what is revealed. Bateman’s impeccably dry delivery is perfectly balanced with Sukeikis’ guy-next door (if the guy next door was constantly looking for short-term female companionship) cheer, and a nice restorative after the awful “Hall Pass.” Julie Bowen (“Modern Family”), Lindsay Sloane, and Ioan Gruffudd make the most of brief appearances and good spirits about bad activities keeps things brisk and lively. It is most likely to be remembered in the future as a relic of (we hope) a low point in the American economy than anyone’s notion of a classic, but fans of raunchy comedy will find something to enjoy.
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