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In the early 1960s, three black female mathematicians helped launch a man into orbit.
I thought it was historical fiction, says Oscar winner Octavia Spencer (The Help).
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To find out it was actually true?
It was about time to credit them for their contributions.
Hidden Figures (out now in limited release) is all about giving the women that long-overdue recognition.
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(Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, and Jim Parsons costar as fellow NASA employees.)
Its a bond that carried over for the three actresses, too.
There was no lack of that on the set.
Taraji, being the social bug that she is, likes to entertain people.
She would have us over to her house and cook for us.
Still, Henson says, no one doubted the magnitude of the stories they were telling.
The film is bigger than me.
Bigger than any award.
On these wonderful womens shoulders, we ride.
Shetterlys 55-pagebookproposal forFigureseventually made the rounds in Hollywood and caught the attention of Melfi.
I was floored that we didnt know anything about these women.
We sat and talked and went through photo albums, Henson says.
Her children were there, and her grandchildren.
I really felt a responsibility when her children met me.
They were like, We couldnt think of a better actress to play our mom.
I was like, No pressure!'
Johnson was surprised that anyone found her story so compelling, Melfi says.
She said multiple times, I dont know why youre making a movie about me.
I just did my work,' he says.
We dont have parades for mathematicians, we have parades for astronauts, he says.
In reality, she had three days.
Whats dramatized is the way things happened but not the fact that they happened, Melfi says.
Besides, the facts alone are more than enough.
Math always made me nervous, she says.
I always felt unworthy.
This helped heal that.
I faced that fear.
Vaughan became the first African-American supervisor in the space program, later teaching herself the agencys state-of-the-art IBM computers.
Jackson went on to be NASAs first African-American female engineer.
I gotta tell ya that era sucked, Spencer says.
Ive become this person who does period movies, and I actuallyhate having to be there emotionally.
Its not something you might easily walk away from.
All I could think about was how wrong and upsetting and sad it was, she says.
Critics groups are certainly taking note.
The cast, too, was nominated by SAG for best ensemble.
In the dark screening room, the family wept.
We will be a part of the telling of their history, Spencer says.
To me, that is a great achievement.
