INSTANT EXPERT
Top of the world, Ma…
START TIME
Octavia Lenora Spencer was born in 1970 in Montgomery, Alabama, the sixth of seven children. Her theatrical debut came in Joel Schumacher’s A Time to Kill (1996) amid a star-stuffed cast (Bullock, McConaughey, both Sutherlands).
Although a blink/miss role - she’s credited as ‘Roark’s nurse’the film would be the first of several socially conscious dramas on her CV. (And she also reteamed with Bullock on the latter’s 1998 short Making Sandwiches.)
BIT PARADE
Spencer moved to LA in 1997, following the advice of her friend (and future director of The Help) Tate Taylor. Bit parts followed in a slew of pictures, ranging from comedies (Never Been Kissed, 1999) to superhero movies (Raimi’s Spider-Man, 2002), horror (Rob Zombie’s Halloween II, 2009) and dramas (2005’s Coach Carter, where she reunited with A Time to Kill co-star Samuel L. Jackson). But it wasn’t until 2011 that her big break came…
MAID TO SHINE
Adapted from Kathryn Stockett’s novel, The Help (2011) follows Black maids in civil-rights-era Mississippi and their relationships with their white employers. Although a critical and commercial hit, the film has since been heavily criticised – not least by some of the cast – for being a white-saviour narrative which, in the words of lead Viola Davis, ‘wasn’t ready to tell the whole truth’. Regardless, the film helped break Spencer into the big league.
GONG-TERM SUCCESS
After picking up her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Help, Spencer went on to garner further noms for Hidden Figures (2016) – about a team of Black female mathematicians working at space-race-era NASAand The Shape of Water (2017), Guillermo del Toro’s creature-feature romance. They saw Spencer set a record as the first Black female
