Oscar Profile #217: Octavia Spencer

Born May 25, 1970 in Montgomery, Alabama the sixth of seven children, Octavia Spencer had her first brush with Hollywood as an intern on 1990’s The Long Walk Home with Sissy Spacek and Whoopi Goldberg filmed in her hometown. She was a staff assistant on 1996’s A Time to Kill with Matthew McConaughey and Sandra Bullock when director Joel Schumacher gave her a small part as Bullock’s nurse. A standout bit part in 1999’s Being John Malkovich with John Cusack brought her notice which led to her casting in numerous TV shows and the occasional film such as 2003’s Bad Santa with Billy Bob Thornton and 2009’s Seven Pounds with Will Smith.

Her career took off with her 2011 portrayal of Minny Jackson, the outspoken maid in the box-office smash, The Help. This led to a sweep of the year’s supporting actress awards including the Oscar.

Spencer was the fifth African-American actress to win a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, but unlike her predecessors, the Oscar has opened doors for her to play some of the most interesting characters to have graced the silver screen since.

Hattie McDaniel’s career peaked with her Oscar win for 1939’s Gone With the Wind. Forever cast a maid or a cook, her best post-Oscar careen role was in the 1942 film, In This Our Life as the cook whose son is framed by Bette Davis for vehicular manslaughter. She also excelled as the title character in classic the radio and TV show, Beulah. Whoopi Goldberg began her screen career at the top with an Oscar nominated Best Actress performance in The Color Purple four years before winning in a rare supporting turn for 1990’s Ghost. Jennifer Hudson won her 2006 Oscar basically for singing her heart out in two songs in Dreamgirls. She has since remained popular as a singer, but not as an actress. Comedienne Mo’Nique won her 2009 Oscar for her tour-de-force dramatic turn in Precious and then all but disappeared.

Spencer followed up her Oscar winning performance in The Help with another multi-award-winning performance in 2013’s Fruitvale Station and in 2014 gave acclaimed performances in two more films, Snowpiercer and Black or White. She has five films awaiting release in 2015 and can be seen in the TV series, Break a Hip in which she plays a doctor.

The actress was awarded $940,000 in a Los Angeles Superior Court on December 23, 2014 as part of a default judgment against a weight loss company, Sensa Products Inc., which she claimed wrongfully fired her and still owed her money. “Good luck in collecting on this case,” Judge Michael Stern told Spencer’s attorneys, after ruling in her favor. “Maybe you can sell the product at a garage sale.”

Octavia Spencer seems to be headed for a long and prosperous career as one of Hollywood’s best and most durable character actresses. She is only 44.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

BEING JOHN MALKOVICH (1999), directed by Quentin Tarantino

Billed as “Woman in Elevator”, Spencer was amusing in her brief role opposite John Cusack in this hit film of fifteen years ago. Seen in retrospect after she has become well-known, her sudden appearance in this role is akin to the thrill we get seeing Thelma Ritter as the Macy’s shopper grateful to Kris Kringle for steering her to the right store for the Christmas present she needed for her son.

Ritter, of course, went on to become one of the most recognizable faces in films of the next twenty years. Spencer’s career is on the same trajectory.

THE HELP (2011), directed by Tate Taylor

Emma Stone starred as the young author of a novel that exposes the dirty laundry of a small South Carolina town in the 1950s in which the uppity white women are obtuse to the feelings and needs of their black maids and cooks. Stone and Bryce Dallas Howard are excellent as young Southern girls with completely different takes on their roles in life and Allison Janney, Sissy Spacek and Cicely Tyson represent the older generation well, but the standout performances in the film are those of Viola Davis as a taken-for-granted maid, Octavia Spencer as an outspoken one and Jessica Chastain as the helpless young wife who is aided by Spencer. Davis and Chastain won their share of awards for the film and were nominated for Oscars, Davis is lead, Chastain in support, but it was Spencer, also in support, who took home the film’s only Oscar.

FRUITVALE STATION (2013), directed by Ryna Coogler

Based on a real-life incident that made headlines on New Year’s Day of 2009, a San Francisco Bay Area man crosses paths with friends, enemies, family and strangers on what would be the last day of his life on December 31, 2008.

Michael B. Jordan gained prominence as Oscar Grant, and Melodie Diaz was equally superb as the mother of his child, but the standout performance in the film was Octavia Spencer’s as Oscar’s mother who has several heart-wrenching scenes including the one in which she has to identify his body. She’s full of remorse for having told him to take the train instead of driving from Oakland to San Francisco and back. Her performance won her the National Board of Review award for Best Supporting Actress, as well as several regional critics’ citations.

SN0WPIERCER (2014), directed by Bong Joon Ho

This high octane science fiction thriller provided stars Chris Evans, Jamie Bell, Tilda Swinton, John Hurt, Ed Harris and Spencer with the opportunity for strong characterizations not often found in such films. Evans is the stalwart leader of an insurrection against his totalitarian environment, Bell is his loyal second in command, Swinton is the spokesperson for the evil leader, Hurt is Evans’ wise odl mentor, Harris is the evil leader and Spencer is a mother desperately searching for her kidnapped son.

Swinton has received a number of year ends awards for her performance, but all six stars excel. Spencer’s performance is heartfelt throughout.

BLACK OR WHITE (2014), directed by Mike Binder

Opening wide in January, 2015, this film festival hit was shown in limited release in December.

Spencer has her biggest screen role to date as the grandmother who seeks custody of her biracial granddaughter whose white grandfather (Kevin Costner) raised her with his recently deceased wife after the death of their daughter, the girl’s mother, in a car crash. The girl’s absentee father is a drug addict. Grandfather Costner has a drinking problem which gives Spencer’s character her opening. The supporting cast includes Jennifer Ehle as Costner’s late wife, Gillian Jacobs as the girl, André Hollnad as her father, Anthony Mackie as Spencer’s attorney and Paula Newsome as the Family Court judge.