Even the joyful “La La Land” has a bittersweet streak. Almost all of them are about people in mourning, most of whom are men. “Hidden Figures” stands out in many ways from other awards hopefuls. These ones just have more earthly powers. He still got to film some superheroes, as far as Gigliotti’s concerned. “He had a couple of sleepless nights and he told his agents to take him out of the running for ‘Spider-Man.’ ” “And I said to him, ‘Please, would you leave my office - are you kidding me?’ ” Gigliotti recalled a few months ago. He asked Gigliotti if perhaps she’d be open to pushing back the filming of “Hidden Figures.” He wanted to direct the project, but he was a finalist to direct Marvel’s newest iteration of “Spider-Man” - a surefire global megahit. Melfi, meanwhile, found himself at a crossroad. “This was three African American female protagonists who were technologically advanced.” “Here were three African American female protagonists who weren’t necessarily divorcées or consoling each other or going away for a girls’ getaway,” he said recently. He had to be involved, he said, because the story combined so many things he loved: his native Virginia, NASA and women. Pharrell Williams, a producer on the drama who also worked on the score, followed shortly after. She, like most people, knew nothing of the women at NASA. Spencer came aboard first, though when she heard about the story, she thought it must be historical fiction. Some producers and studios appear to think that casting actors of color is some huge gamble, but producer Donna Gigliotti isn’t one of them.Īs soon as she saw the proposal for the original book by Margot Lee Shetterly (which came out in September), she knew she had to make the film, and she wanted to make it fast. (Hopper Stone/SMPSP/Twentieth Century Fox/Hopper Stone/SMPSP/Twentieth Century Fox) Henson, flanked by Spencer and Monáe, as their characters meet John Glenn. “You can’t really point a finger,” Melfi said, because the problem is the whole system, not a single person. In the movie, after Katherine begins working in an office with only white men, a coffee pot marked “colored” appears - and she doesn't know who did it. “That’s the racism we have today - the unconscious bias,” he said. But how about the more insidious institutional prejudice? We’ve seen water fountains marked “whites only” on-screen before, he said, not to mention civil rights activists getting hosed down or tear-gassed by the police. That was the kind of discrimination that director Ted Melfi was interested in exposing. The human “computers” found solidarity as they worked together at a place that had segregated bathrooms and lunch tables. Spencer and Monáe play two other real-life math virtuosos, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson.ĭuring that era, black working women had few opportunities beyond becoming nurses or teachers, so the women faced a lot of discrimination to help their country beat the Soviets to the moon. During the space race, NASA’s Langley Research Center employed black female mathematicians to calculate, among other things, launch and landing for the country’s first astronauts.Īfter all, John Glenn didn’t make it into space alone, and one person who helped was Katherine Johnson, played by Henson. The spirit of teamwork also shows up in the plot of their movie, which came out Sunday.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |