Actresses Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer joined author Kathryn Stockett and screenwriter-director Tate Taylor at an advance screening of the "The Help "Monday night at Atlantic Station. There was no empty seat at the beginning, no dry eye at the end.
"Octavia and I were committed to making these women as authentic as possible," Davis said of Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson, the characters she and Spencer play, during a post-screening discussion.
The longtime New York Times bestselling novel tells the story of domestic employees in Jackson, Miss., at the dawn of the civil rights movement. Stockett, a Jackson native who lives in Atlanta, wrote the book while she lived in New York. The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks propelled the narrative.
“I got so homesick,” Stockett said. She began to think of the woman, now deceased, who worked for her family for decades and whom she loved like another mother. “I told Tate, ‘the voice I want to hear right now is Demetrie’s.’ ”
She started writing and began to bring her cherished companion back, along with the story of what life was like for African Americans in the separate and unequal Deep South.
“Once I hit page 300, I started getting a little nervous about what I’d done,” Stockett said. “I thought, ‘I don’t have the right to tell these stories.' I’m still very conflicted about what I’ve done.”
Spencer was initially skeptical. “At that first bit of dialect I thought, ‘Oh God, it’s Mammy from "Gone with the Wind". I hate Kathryn Stockett!’” But she kept reading. “By the end of page one I was hoping there was something in it for me.”
The success of “The Help” followed a long season of rejection for Stockett and Taylor, friends since preschool. They shared an apartment in New York while she worked on the book; then he then headed west to try to launch his acting career.
“We were both getting doors slammed in our faces,” Stockett said. “Mine came in the form of letters that said, ‘We don’t want to publish this. Don’t write us again’, his in the form of, ‘Next. You didn’t get the part.’ ”
Undeterred, Taylor optioned the movie rights before the book was even published and contacted Spencer, also a friend. “We thought we were going to make a little indie movie based on my friend’s unpublishable novel,” he said.
The movie stars Emma Stone as Skeeter, the idealistic young writer who reveals the stories of the domestic employees of Jackson. Bryce Dallas Howard is perfectly devilish as the racist schemer Hilly while Sissy Spacek adds levity in her role as Hilly's mom, who is kinder but ultimately unable to stand up to her domineering daughter. Leslie Jordan is utterly charming in his role as the newspaper editor who gives Skeeter a crack at writing. And Cicely Tyson is heartbreaking as Constantine, who was officially the maid at Skeeter's home but in truth, was the woman who raised her.
“The challenging part for me was being a product of the civil rights generation,” Spencer said. “It was difficult to have not existed during that time but to go back emotionally.” She and Davis bonded on screen and off. “We talk every day now,” Spencer said.
“The laughter was authentic,” Davis said. “The love was authentic.”
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