Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Friday 31 May 2019
Octavia Spencer like you’ve never seen her before in ‘Ma’

By LINDSEY BAHR her production company,
Associated Press acted consistently in film
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Octa- and television and written
via Spencer is a movie star. children’s books. She even
She has been for almost a executive produced this
decade since audiences year’s best picture winner,
and Oscar voters fell in love “Green Book.”
with her as Minnie in “The But there was one thing
Help.” Since then she’s got- she hadn’t yet done in her
ten two more supporting nearly 25 years in the busi-
actress Oscar nominations, ness: Starred in her own
one of which was for a film film. She’d been a lead be-
that became another “sur- fore, but she’d never been
prise” blockbuster (“Hid- first on the call sheet. Until
den Figures”), ramped up now.

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Octavia Spencer in a scene from “Ma.”
Associated Press

The film that righted that career but she was being now to create it for myself.”
wrong is “Ma,” a Blumhouse offered the same thing and She’d been optioning
horror movie in which she never the lead. Women of books going back to her
plays a small town woman color just don’t get the lead time on “The Help,” but
who buys beer for some unless they’re a slave or a her first executive produc-
local high school students maid.” So he called his for- ing credit actually came
and lets them party in her mer roommate (they lived about by accident when
basement, before things together in a mid-city Los Ryan Coogler’s “Fruitvale
take a sinister turn. It opens Angeles duplex for seven Station” lost $150,000 of its
nationwide this weekend, years), and proposed this $900,000 budget.
and it’s unlike anything au- semi-deranged film that “I put in some money and
diences have seen Spen- would be a departure for then I started making some
cer do before. both of them. calls to people... I don’t
“There are only a couple “I said, ‘Well, usually black even know that I had the
of archetypes people are people get killed in the first resources. I just knew that
comfortable seeing me in. 15 minutes of a horror film,’” it was important for me to
And for me, it’s like, you Spencer said. “And he said, do,” Spencer said. “We
know you might only be ‘Not only do you not die were not going to let it die
comfortable seeing me this within the first 15 minutes, on the vine, and I had just
way, but there are so many but you actually do all the worked with people who
colors in this crayon box,” killing.’ I thought, ‘Ok, I’m I knew had the resources
Spencer, 47, said. “I want interested.’” and so I called.”
to play everything that you The script needed some She got some nos, but
don’t think I can do.” work, though. Ma didn’t re- those people regretted it
She’d found herself, de- ally have a motivation, she and have since kept bug-
spite all the success, being was just crazy, and Taylor ging her for whatever else
considered for only “nur- changed that. she’s got.
turer” or “sage” roles. She “The things that he “I say, I’m not going to call
wanted to stretch. changed weren’t based you unless I need you again
The only reason “Ma” came on race,” Spencer said. “It and you know when I make
to her was Tate Taylor, who was just giving her a back- that call it’ll be something
wrote and directed “The story, to give her a reason, worthy of your time,” Spen-
Help,” but also has been in her mind, as to why she cer said with a smile.
Spencer’s friend since they takes such a dark turn.” She’s got a lot on her plate
were production assistants But ask Spencer what her right now. She’s jet-lagged,
together on “A Time to Kill” dream role is and the an- for one, having just gotten
in 1995, dreaming about a swer might surprise you. off a plane from London
move to Los Angeles and a “I always say, the part of where she’s filming the re-
career in movies. producer,” she said. “Not make of “The Witches.”
The script Taylor saw was only do I get to create op- She’s also teamed up with
written for a white woman, portunities for myself but for LeBron James to produce
but he thought of Spencer other people. I still live by and star in a Netflix series
nonetheless. that. And if there is some- about entrepreneur Mad-
“She had expressed to me thing that I’m dying to do, am C.J. Walker, as well as
she was frustrated,” Taylor if it’s not written, as a pro- an AppleTV+ crime drama
said. “She’s grateful for her ducer, I have an option “Truth Be Told.” q