Remember the famous pie scene from “The Help”? Evil Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard) unknowingly abets plucky Minny (Octavia Spencer) in a dastardly act of culinary revenge and earns the nickname “Two Slice Hilly” in the process. Minny can scarcely tell her friends what she’s done, calling the episode “the terrible awful.” (Because this is a family newspaper, let’s just say Minny really put her all into that pie.)
So, ready to hear about the real pie scene? Lee Ann Flemming — a Cruger, Miss., cookbook author and newspaper columnist who served as the official food stylist for the movie adapted from Atlanta author Kathryn Stockett’s book — was in town this week promoting the movie’s release on DVD and Blu-ray. As entertaining as any of the characters in Stockett’s novel, Flemming served plenty of behind-the-scenes scoop.
For the pie scene, also starring Sissy Spacek in a small but hilarious role as Hilly’s mother, filmmakers needed a dozen pies. A formidable task for any cook. Add a healthy dose of Hollywood, and you’ve got a seriously tricky order. Not only did the pies have to look absolutely identical, but Howard’s contract also stipulated that anything she put into her mouth had to be vegan and gluten-free and contain no dairy products and no sweeteners except stevia. Flemming had to send off for most of the ingredients. “Those 12 pies ended up costing $1,200,” she said.
After a full day of baking, Flemming sat down to rest. A glance at her hand nearly stopped her heart. Surrounded by a dozen pies headed for their close-ups, she noticed with alarm that she was missing one acrylic nail. “I said, ‘OK, Lee Ann, think,’ ” Flemming said. She did some quick math. Twelve pies. Eight slices per pie. That’s 96 slices. Odds were slim that Howard would actually chomp down on a fingernail, right? Because few of the ingredients the contract demanded were available locally, there was no way Flemming could start over. Then she thought wryly, “She said no gluten, only stevia ... but she didn’t say anything about acrylic nails.”
The story ends happily. Flemming discovered the fingernail by the sink. Nervous breakdown averted. “I was freaking out,” she recalled.
Flemming pens a cooking column for the Commonwealth newspaper in Greenwood, Miss., where “The Help” was filmed, and has written a cookbook called “Recipes and Remembrances.” She has plenty of both. Early in the filming schedule for “The Help,” a luncheon scene called for a congealed gelatin salad. Using a new mold for the first time, Flemming watched in horror as the mess escaped the dish and sloshed into her silverware and linen drawers.
“I’m going to tell y’all what I did,” she said, holding court in the sumptuous lobby of the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead while high-tea patrons all around us nibbled scones. “I sat down on the floor and cried. I said, ‘What in the hell do I think I’m doing?’ ”
Messy drawers and missing nails notwithstanding, Flemming enjoyed her role and said hustling to make that much food on a tight schedule made her a more efficient cook. By the time Flemming prepped for the scene toward the film’s end where sweet Celia (Jessica Chastain) cooks a huge spread for Minny, she had things down to a science. Watching her vittles on the big screen was a hoot.
“I loved it,” she said of the movie. “I don’t think they could have done a better job. I’ve seen it twice. I can’t wait to see the DVD so I can pause it.”
She’d consider another turn as a Hollywood foodie, but would research it thoroughly before signing on again. “I would make absolutely sure how much food was in the movie,” she said. “That was an intense job.”
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